Depressingly,  misogyny is more and more rampant, even – or especially – among young people. In this, the 21st century, a lot of men are worse than cave-dwellers.

I heard a story (true, alledgedly and unbelievably) the other day that illustrates it.

Someone (who I suspect is a bit of a misogynist himself, judging by the tone in which he speaks to women but never to men – overbearing,  occasionally shouting) was talking about genealogy and the DNA technology, and a friend of his, or a friend of a friend, had found out that the father he had always thought of as his father was not his biological father.

Having found out the name of my father’s biological father through generalogy and DNA tests myself, I am finding it amusing with all the skeletons falling out of the closets the world over with this software and the technology, but my heart goes out to women who not even a century ago were stigmatised due to their “illegitimate” children. A horrible concept which I did not think existed any longer,  especially not in the minds of more recent generations.

Turns out I was wrong. Back to the story.

The grandchildren of the woman in the story were not pleased (oh dear …. I’m guessing they are male) – because up till then “they had idolised their grandmother”. (Indicating that now she had fallen from grace, due to having had a child without being married to the father of said child, a couple of generations ago).

With family like that, who needs enemies?

I could not believe my own ears.

So not only was she stigmatised and shamed at the time, and suffered the indignity of the father of the child running off and away from his responsibilities (but that was considered OK, and still is) – and if the case was anything like so many other similar cases back then, her parents would have made it abundantly clear how mortally ashamed they were of her (the mans’s parents, on the other hand, were not ashamed of him – in fact, people probably empathized with him for having been “lured” into such an unpleasant situation – oh, boohoo), and forced her to marry a man she might not have wanted to marry had it not been for her scandalous “illegitimate child”.

Not only that but now she is judged and shamed by her grandchildren – in the 21st century.

And we are all supposed to take men seriouosly. Words fail me.