Welcome to this edition of Newsgram!

Subscribe with your favorite podcast player

Today we have a hot topic and it’s more than a little bit controversial for a number of reasons. First, it features two men talking about women but don’t worry, this isn’t some barroom chat before a bachelor party. Instead, it’s an intelligent conversation centered around Barry Wren’s book Sex! (for females only)

Wren takes us on a journey through history, examining how our views on gender inequality were first formed and solidified in many cultures. His book also tackles a host of issues women have faced over the centuries—like sexual objectification, the value placed on young women, and male dominance. And yes, there are some statements in there that might make you bristle, like “Sexuality begins when the brain decides the body is ready” or “Female beauty lasts as long as she has ovarian eggs.” But before you get too fired up, remember the main goal: to shine a light on how we got here today by taking a peek into the past. So let’s have a look in the rearview mirror — and if we’re going to go back we might as well go all the way back to the beginning…

Barry Wren – The Garden of Eden that everybody hears about, that was the land which lay between the two major rivers running out of Turkey at that stage. And lots of people thought about it there. But in the myth that was developed, God planted plants and animals and fish and birds into that area there, and he then put Adam in there to look after the whole process. And Adam became very, very bored with what he was doing, and he wanted a companion. So God made a companion for him out of one of his ribs.

And her name was Eve. Did you hear him use the word Myth? I told you this was gonna be a bumpy ride. The story of Adam and Eve teaches us lots of important lessons like obedience to God, sin and sacrifice, good vs. evil, marriage and monogamy — to name a few and just to be clear I have no reason to believe that the story isn’t true but I think his point here is that the idea of women being subservient to men started here and we’ve taken it too literally, focused on only that point and distorted that element of the story over time to the detriment of women. 

Barry Wren – Unfortunately, people still think about Adam and Eve, and Eve was the evil woman because she ate from the Tree of Knowledge. We all would love to get that Tree of Knowledge ourselves, but she ate from that and was then discarded from the whole Garden of Eden. That went down, and a lot of people lost their lives because that particular type of mythology persisted. Male dominance and women being at fault all the time. In my book, I’ve mentioned several instances like that, but I think that mythology is one of the biggest problems we have, is to look at reality rather than religion and myths which have persisted in these areas. I get a little upset about it sometimes when I think of how people’s lives are affected by myths rather than by truth. 

Barry says gender inequality has deep roots in human history. It has been tied to cultural, religious, and legal systems for thousands of years. Religious texts from various traditions have put men in dominant positions.

Even today, despite making significant progress, the fundamental structures that support gender inequality remain intact. We’ve made some progress here in the states but women continue to face disparities in pay, representation, and rights worldwide and more interesting is the fact that not much has really changed. 

Barry Wren – My real reason for looking at this is to look at the problem which has not changed over those three to four thousand years. 

And he says a big part of that is simply due to the average Mans’ physical size. Tieing a person’s worth to their size seems kind of crazy but I guess it was a different time.

Barry Wren – Men are big and strong and dominant and were like that three or four thousand years ago. And women were small and rather passive. So they pushed the women around and said, you must do this or that. And the main reason that they had women in their society was to look after the men, to be really a servant to them. They were subjected to these people, but they also provided sexual opportunities for the men. And the men wanted to have mild infants born to follow them. So that started thousands of years ago and followed. And women were being taught that they had to follow those rather passive approaches. There’s very little difference even now in our present century. We find that a lot of men think that they’re stronger and better and should have a more dominant role in the household. And the end result is a lot of conflict. Sometimes women are beaten up. Sometimes women are actually killed by their partner because she’s not following what he wants. So life hasn’t really changed and all the problems are still there. I’m trying in the book to bring the thought that the discrepancy, the dissonance which occurs between men and women at present really has been exactly the same for the last four or five thousand years.

Research does show that men with lower levels of education and those that hold traditional views about gender roles, are the ones who have more negative attitudes toward women and those men are more likely to be abusive. Not in all cases. There are plenty of College educated wife beaters out there but he says sticking to outdated ideas about men being in charge, can increase the chances of abusive behavior. 

Barry Wren – The main reason that they had women in their society was to look after the men, to be really a servant to them. They were subjected to these people, but they also provided sexual opportunities for the men. And the men wanted to have mild infants born to follow them. So that started thousands of years ago and followed and women were being taught that they had to follow those rather passive approaches. 

Women will always be the ones that have babies. That’s just science but will pretty girls always be able to walk on water? I like to think that’s changing.

Barry Wren – You can look at the various stories that always have a young woman, a very attractive young woman, being very athletic and very attractive, and men fighting over her and having close contact with her. Occasionally, some of the men actually acquired one of those women and protected her until she became old and then dismissed her. So being young and attractive was the major thing which was happening in those years, and those women were worshipped. Men loved to have them. They were like a trophy that they had. Put them up on the pedestal for the period of time that they owned them.

Is that where we got the term “Trophy Wife”? — That’s another podcast entirely and since I’ve probably infuriated you enough with our look at history I won’t go into his thoughts on sex before the age of 18 because the past has changed there as well, largely due to the legal system. The book does go into a great deal of detail there emphasizing the need for more education. Anyway, we’re going to move on to Hormones and why beauty fades. 

Barry Wren – That’s what happens when a woman enters the menopause. What happens is that she’s born at birth with about 2 million eggs in her two ovaries. She uses an awful lot of those eggs every time she menstruates. Eventually she runs out of those eggs, usually about the age of 45 or even up to 50. And the production of the hormones, there’s at least six or seven different hormones, but estradiol is the most important one that stimulates the tissue that makes a young woman grow into the beautiful young woman that we love so much. When the eggs run out from the ovary, so does the production of the hormones. So those special cells and organs begin to fade and become old and worn out. They’re not there, they don’t even function.

And while that clinical explanation can sound a bit depressing there is a silver lining. Wanna keep that youthful glow well into the post-menopausal years? Here’s a tip.

Barry Wren – Women can maintain their hormonal or cellular activity by taking the right hormones and that’s why gynecological endocrinologists are very important for them to see. 

He says, pay a visit to an Endocrinologist, Gynecologists or even doctors who focus on anti-aging that offer HRT as part of their practice and have a discussion to see if there’s a treatment that works for you.

Barry Wren – Many of my female friends are taking hormonal therapy and they look just gorgeous. They’re marvellous. They’re in their 70s and 60s and some of them are even older than what they look marvellous, still on hormonal therapy. 

Barry is a doctor after all so his book,Sex! Is subtitled For Women Only because it’s part history, part Hormonal Therapy but 100% women. 

Barry Wren – I love women and I love to help them as much as I can. And I look back at the misuse by men of their power over women in those days. It’s changing and now women have so much power. Their sexuality is a powerful thing, as powerful as any man’s strength, muscular strength. But men still bash their women around, which is wrong.

He is not a fan of violence against women or trophy wives and he makes that clear. He’s also against women using their sexuality to make a living because while the right hormones can help prolong the process, beauty fades and a woman’s value should not be defined by her looks. 

Barry Wren – Women should not ever be a commodity. They should be revered and loved and enjoyed because they are an individual in their own right. The males don’t own them and they should never be using them as a commodity to gain more money, more power, more whatever it might be. 

And since this show is being produced on the eve of a major presidential election  here in America I would be remiss if I didn’t include this final point… 

Barry Wren – Right now we’ve got four or five major wars going on around the world. The people who instigated those wars are always the male and it’s the women that are now saying, stop this stupid war.

Just sayin’

The book is Sex! (For females only) by Barry Wren and it’s really for men and women or anyone who can appreciate a collection of stories and essays designed to reexamine and retell the events that led up to modern discussions about gender inequality. It’s available at Amazon and all the usual places online. 

Barry Wren (Selling) I understand that it’s selling to people around the world. And I’m hoping it sells a lot. I need the money.

And that will do it for this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com. 

Check out Barry Wren on the Books on Air podcast with Suzanne Harris, or the Talking Books podcast with JT Crowley. 

The post SEX! (for females only) appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.