Do you know how our and their notions of men’s and women’s honor differ?

     For us, the man’s honor is measured by whether he can protect himself and his family from external threats. For example, whether he will be able to rebuff the offenders on the street, catch up with the car that cut him, and deal with the hotrod the man’s way, and whether he can bash the face if someone called him a fool.

     We consider the one who can defend his honor this way a real man.

     That is why martial arts and all sorts of single combats are popular with our boys. The danger awaits us on the street every day. We need to be strong, courageous, daring. These men’s qualities are most valued by us. Every day here is a fight for your honor.

     And how do they measure men’s honor?

     Their society is too humane, people are too kind and polite. Therefore, the skills of struggle, strength, arrogance gradually atrophied.

     A man with honor is considered one who is polite, kind, decent. He can lose a verbal battle with a rude, he can be beaten up in a fight with a bully. For them, this is not the most terrible and not the most important. It is much more important for them not to offend the weak, not to offend the woman, not to play it low-down. Such a man, according to their concepts, has his honor.

     What is women’s honor in our understanding?

     First of all, it is chastity. That is, she must be a virgin when she marries, mustn’t lead a dissolute life, be submissive to her husband, spend all her time with children. That’s what is important for a woman in our understanding.

     It does not matter to us what kind of education a woman has, what political views she has, what she has achieved in her life. The main thing for her is to get married successfully, hide behind the wide back of a real man who can provide for his wife and children. If she managed to get married like this, then yes, she is a good, respected woman.

     For them it is totally different, probably because the woman has long ceased to be considered the property of a man. Woman’s honor is not determined by her puritanism and sexual experience, or rather its absence. Nobody cares. For them, it is more important whether she is independent, kind, whether she loves her children, whether she helps other people, whether she takes part in charity.

     That’s how sometimes two cultures, two philosophies collide, and do not understand each other.

     P.S. Saying “we” and “they”, I do not mean nationality and country, because adherents of both philosophies in different proportions live in pretty much all countries.

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