General

It is interesting to me as a biologist and a linguist that the female reproductive part of a flower that receives the male pollen is called the "stigma" and in society for so many generations a woman who has sex with a man outside of marriage has carried a social "stigma." This is linked to old fashioned notions that a woman must be a virgin or pious and is linked to greater certainty of paternity for males. Again, we are back the kind of basic biology that is at the root of much misogyny and patriarchy. We will always need chivalry because women who are pregnant or mothers have specific needs and because males have greater physical strength from babyhood onwards. Women have sexual needs as much as men do. Perhaps it is time society at least admitted that so we can move on to a more grown up attitude toward female sexuality.