She Did It

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Genesis 3:8,12 The man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden. [Adam] said, “The woman you put here with me–she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

Looks like Adam’s version of the story was the one that made it into the Bible—tough break, Eve.  (Interestingly, the Qur’an blames Adam and Eve equally for their mistake and doesn’t say anything about who ate the forbidden fruit first).  According to the Bible, God punishes Adam for breaking his rule by having to work hard to grow his food until he dies. He punishes Eve with painful childbirth and servitude to Adam (not that that’s actually anything new).  Although the story only mentions these punishments as applying to Adam and Eve themselves, it’s often interpreted that these punishments were passed on to their descendants.

Not too fair for the descendants, but let’s look at this passing down the punishments thing long term: Nowadays, working still sucks, but most of us don’t have to work hard in the fields to make a living anymore. In fact, working conditions are pretty cushy: 8 hour days, weekends off,  lunch breaks, sometimes you get discounts, ACs and/or heaters. So, men have it pretty easy comparatively.

For women, their short stick seems to only have gotten shorter. They still have to go through childbirth, and while there are medications and epidurals and whatnot, well… they still have to go through childbirth. Women’s rights have come a long way in many countries, but check out Forbe’s list of top earning CEOs, or a list of presidents, leaders, and dictators. So, Eves, looks like in the grand scope of things, you’re still in the kitchen baking up apple pies for your Adamses. And while we’re on the subject of women’s rights, when they rose a big fuss about their lack of such rights, they eventually got the right to do what? Work! They took on Adam’s punishment as well! Sucks for you, ladies!