I have to tell you; I'm sick of the gender divide in nearly every single question I read.

This question presumes that women in the past knew what they wanted, and it also presumes that modern men know what they want. Both of these assumptions are false purely because it's ridiculous to assume that at any given moment, any given person 'knows what they want' out of life, their life, their future.

You might as well say "What is happiness?" and expect a single answer from a varied group of individuals.

We as a people, as a world, want happiness and fulfillment. We all want pleasure and gain, power and satisfaction.

The only trouble with these realizations is that we all define happiness, fulfillment, pleasure, gain, power and satisfaction *DIFFERENTLY*.

To some, power is money, control over a huge corporation, running one's own business, political clout. To some, power is the ability to have say simply over their OWN life.

To some, happiness is a plain house, with 2 children, a dog, a car, a job and the ability to craft a perfect apple pie. To some, it's gobs of cash, going to expensive clubs, being ever-youthful and beautiful.

Do modern women know what they want? Of course they do. So did women from earlier generations. So do men.

Everyone knows what they WANT, it's defining the silly details that makes us crazy, gets us frustrated, leaves us in dead end careers or in loveless marriages or wondering 'who we are'.

We want to be happy. Maybe to some, that will entail going back to college and getting a law degree to fight for immigration rights. Maybe to some, that will be having ten children who each have ten children, and finding yourself in your sun hat and tomato garden surrounded by baby grandchildren. We want to be fulfilled. Maybe to some that will include a partner for life, but for some it will include a vast repertoire of lovers, unending. We want pleasure. Maybe for some, that will be healthy living and moderation, indulgences of the flesh only sparely, to heighten their occasion. Maybe for some, it will be constant acts of hedonism, each waking hour devoted to sating every kind of carnal and mental desire that can be found.

Maybe some want world peace. Maybe some want Christianity to populate the globe and eradicate all other forms of faith. Maybe some want a single black union of culture to rise up and become the dominant group on the planet. Maybe some want the ecosystem to fight back, and for Mother Earth to shake us off, like a dog does fleas.

Our desires - 'what we want' - may come into conflict with what others want. What we see as desirable may seem horrific to others. You may not understand the version of 'happiness' that another person has.

To put it another way, not necessarily religious, but more philosophical: We're all speaking in different fleshly languages about a common spiritual goal.

Do women know what they want?

Hell yes, of COURSE we know what we want; EVERYONE knows what they want.

What we're working on now is how to GET it.

Learn more about this author, Catastrophe Jones.
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