Huh. See I thought the first one was shockingly good. And then the second one seemed to have no idea what made it good. And I didn't watch the rest.

I think it's also an interesting illustration about how culture influences how someone views identical events: to one culture, a pregnant woman is an idol of fecundity and creativity but to another (one that views women as passive and burdensome), she looks like a container for a man's creation.

Well, but that assumes that the cultures understood women to be the "creators" of life. Ancient Greek medicine/philosophy often viewed women as (unfortunately) necessary "containers" for the creative male seed. The women basically weren't seen as having a part of the creative process.

That's a good point. Though, in this context, I think the article was deliberating contrasting this culture's concept of marriage and family with that of the west.

I guess it depends what you mean by "dominant." I am a single woman living alone right now. No one is trying to force me into marriage and I don't have to answer to my father (or grandfather or brother or uncle) for my life decisions. And, if I did get married, my husband couldn't seize all my property, take our…

Again, not sure that's "messed up" exactly. Why? The children in question clearly have numerous sources of affection and care in their lives and the men also have children they feel love and attachment towards. Also, as the article points out, it's about priorities - most often the men do have relationships with…

Well "social structure" is a huge part of culture. And it's important to highlight different social structures because people have an especially insidious tendency to assume their own culture's social structures are "natural" whereas anyone who is different is unnatural and bizarre.

Is it? In the past in the west (until around the late 19th century) a married woman did not have a legal identity apart from her husband. Most significantly, her property was legally her husband's property in every way. For example, even if a couple separated, the woman's husband could seize any of her earnings as…

Well then, the modern world? Women choosing to keep their given names? Children with hyphenated names? The fact that dowrys are less common nowadays than they were before (and pretty much extinct in western culture)? The Married Women's Property Act?

Exactly. The Pharoahs were a patriarchal system that was matrilineal because everyone always knows who their mother is whereas the father can always be in doubt. That's why marrying the princess makes you the king.

You seem to be using "matrilineal" and "matriarchal" interchangeably here and they aren't the same thing. A culture can be matrilineal (e.g. Judaism) without being matriarchal.

Not sure why it's "messed up". Men still take care of biologically connected children. The connection is simple based on having a shared mother (sister's children) rather than paternity.

Pretty much most marriage customs? Why do you think we have a tradition of the bride's father "giving her away" to her husband?

People forget that who is a "niece or nephew" is culturally determined. In South America, my father's cousins were all my aunts and uncles.

So you tolerate everyone who agrees with you and everyone else is the enemy either by design or ignorance? That's not tolerance, that's being an insane person.

There will always be a lot of people who enjoy indulging in cruelty and malice. And cruelty and malice that can be indulged in as a group just makes it that much sweeter.

But something not being stated doesn't really count as a "hole" though, it's just something the viewer doesn't know. I mean Elle's biological father isn't known on the show, but it's not a plot hole that we don't know. And we don't know that the dimension is empty. We've seen very little of it. It could be that…

I got the impression that it wasn't aware of our dimension until Elle touched it and got it's attention and then ripped a giant hole. All the portals were the tiny tears it made coming in to steal people. They healed over with time. Elle's portal was special because it stayed open.

They didn't know Eleven, who was, in fact lying to them and almost killed one of them in a fit of rage and fear. To the extent they worried about whether to trust her, they were right. And it's hardly surprising that they were at times, more worried about Will, who they love, than the weird stranger they just met. …

Also "battle fatigue" right? Though I think that was more the acute cases.