Blue-eyed 'sons' : Who is the culprit?

 If we probe into the multitude of cultures in the world, one notices that it is the mother who spoils her sons. She is biased towards her male offsprings and tends to emotionally influence them into their adulthood. While this is not a good thing, it has continued irrespective of any laws that might have come up in favor of daughters. The laws have mostly failed miserably in changing this wrong perspective of society and their prejudice against female offsprings. Same blood but different upbringing!!!

Mothers and the bias towards sons

Ideally, if you see a family, neither parent should lean more in favor of any particular gender of the child. All children of a family are equal be it of any gender. But often, one does not find so in real life. There are a pro-son biases and these are also portrayed in older mythological epics and folk tales and further reenforced by the films, TV serials, and the like. They are so deep-rooted that none of the few laws made for females have helped it in any way to overcome the prejudices against daughters. They continue unabated and educational level and working efficiency of a daughter does not help in changing the outlook of people and her own family towards her. 

Favoritism in child rearing (Source: Quora) 

Parents usually tend to rear daughters and sons differently in many cultures. Whereas sons are allowed to do what they want and pampered, daughters are not allowed their wishes and are always reared as 'someone's property'. Because it is thought that her house is not the one in which she is born but the one in which she will get married into. Hence while son gets bestowed with all the love and gifts, daughters are kept aloof. Though things seems to have changed over the last few decades, subtle but significant differences that are felt continue. The more oppressed and regressive a culture, the more larger is the gap in rearing of daughters and sons. A son is loved even if bad and a daughter is disliked and disowned even if good. 

Daughters and "No worth"

Rearing of daughters is such that they are not given freedom. They often get the feeling that they are not part of the birth family. They feel hurt but have nowhere to express and seek redressal of this prejudice because there are no laws on this. No laws to punish parents who are doing favoritism towards a son or prejudice against a daughter!!! 

And the worst part is that a daughter is also often not openly welcomed or embraced by the family she marries into. She finds no true love at either place and continues to be a scapegoat of sacrifice. 

Daughters get no worth in most cultures (Source: Pinterest) 

There are growing instances in the underdeveloped and developing countries wherein a son does not take care of his parents and the daughter even if married pitches in and takes care of her aging parent. But no one points any fingers at the son. This type of attitude is bad for society and needs to be changed. A daughter should feel wanted and her help towards her birth and married family should be appreciated. 

Also read here Reasons of inflated male ego

Besides, when a parent has bias towards a son, it is not only their daughter but the son's wife will also suffer. The parent might not like the son listening to his wife resulting in fights and issues. Thus, the son might also get affected negatively. 

Women and gender equality

Women suffer and desire gender equality. But often one sees that it is another women herself who does not give it at places where she has to. For example, by being biased to a son and not giving up her hold over him, a mother is being unjust to her own daughter as well as her son's wife. At these places, though the daughter and wife feel hurt, when they become mothers they again behave unfairly to their own daughters and daughter-in-laws. So often, one can see that women themselves are perpetrators of this wrong of society. 

Many mothers fail to realize their own time as a daughter and what they felt. Later, they also do want to overtly parent their sons even when they grow up (married or single). 

These biasing mothers do not instill discipline and responsibility in their sons. They do not like when their son is willing to do household chores and help his wife. They continue to serve him and also control him into his married life. Such sons expect a similar behavior from their wives even if the latter is a working lady. 

Mothers do not seem to learn and even when a son does not love her, she continues to bestow luxuries on him. So one can see it is a women doing wrong things often and we blame only men for it. We need to sensitize not only men but also such mothers to stop making their son a blue-eyed boy.