This is not the answer!

I read this article just now. It's about a town in China where women rule and men must obey (and may be punished if they don't).

It makes me feel a little ill, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one.

Leaving aside the issue of protecting traditional culture (I really don't want to go into that right now), I'm no more comfortable with the idea of women being dominant or the rulers of men just because they're women than I am with the idea of men being dominant or the rulers of women just because they're men.

That said, I guess it provides a nice example of how the patriarchy isn't the only "natural" way of organising a society!

On a more pessimistic note: perhaps it's also one of those pandering-to-the-little-women things that happens from time to time. You know, like in those relationships where the man always jokes that he needs to get permission from His Woman before he goes out for a night with the boys (or something like that), but you know that what he says is really a satire of the power structure in that relationship. Even if he doesn't realise it himself.