Random SF-ish Thought

[kerravonsen]

What would a society be like, if women, but not men, were immortal? (Presumably immortal in the mostly-immortal sense of "can't die of old age, but can be killed").

Comments

[kalypso_v]

Would they remain capable of reproduction (until killed)? Because if so there might be a population explosion, increasing the gender imbalance, and weakening monogamy, as men would be in high demand among women wanting children - and in any case, an immortal woman knows she can't expect a lifetime relationship with one man. Also big implications re lebensraum.

[vilakins]

Men would bring in laws to kill women of a certain age, or just do it without them, of course. Unless we also got the power off them and kept them subjugated.

[kerravonsen]

Or both; a mix of different societies.

[sallymn]

I thought that too - actually, whichever sex was immortal, society would undoubtedly find it necessary that they do die...

[kerravonsen]

I'm not so sure; in a society which is already patriarchal, women wouldn't have enough power to fight back.

[jedibuttercup]

I imagine it would do strange things to family trees, if women could just keep reproducing. And probably result in younger rebellious women trying to off the matriarchs of their families because they'd otherwise have limited opportunities for power, and the matriarchs keeping tight reign on their female offspring to stop such things from happening, and women all up and down the age spectrum using men as pawns. And the men having lots of angst about this, of course, and figuring ways to maneuver the women around, which if the women's personalities tended to freeze along with their physical age, might not be all that difficult...

Probably really distort the idea of romance, as well, and pull it apart from procreation, since any female-male relationship would be temporary from the female's perspective and pretty darn unequal from the guy's side, too.

*musing* Of course, I may be getting some of that from an imperfect memory of reading The Shore of Women when I was in high school.

[kerravonsen]

I'd heard of this book, but never managed to read a copy.

[jedibuttercup]

Doesn't have the immortality angle, but it's very women-have-tech, men-are-savages, totally separate societies. The M/F romance in the book is very transgressive for the cultures, and I'm pretty sure I remember it ending on a depressing note. Very O.o to me when I was 16. =)

[izhilzha]

You're making me think of the social structures in bee hives. :-)

[watervole]

Wealth/power would concentrate in the hands of women. Young men would become more reckless in attempts to gain money/recognition.

You'd get complex matriarchial dynasties.

[feliciakw]

I think you might also get women who are tired of being immortal and have seen so many of their loved ones die (men from the natural course of things, women from being bumped off), asking someone to help them die.

This question makes for some interesting ponderings . . .