西方关于男女的观念源于天主教和新教的宗教认知,这种认知把女性而非男性视为罪恶的根源。然而,基督教观点也高度重视男女之间的关系,并将其限定在婚姻之中。人们珍视婚姻,是为了组建家庭,而家庭在社会中发挥着教育和道德的作用。十八世纪,启蒙运动以其现代西方思想主导社会,社会随之采纳了世俗主义。世俗主义将宗教与生活分离,使其与社会的一切关系断开,同时确立了自由、平等和社会正义等新观念。世俗主义提出了一种关于人和社会的新观念,这与基督教相悖。尽管如此,它并未改变社会中普遍存在的对女性的世俗看法,无论是在神学还是哲学文献中。相反,一些哲学家试图从哲学和理智上为这种看法辩护。许多自由主义和启蒙运动的哲学家,如休谟、霍布斯、洛克、康德、卢梭和孟德斯鸠,对女性的智力能力始终持怀疑态度。他们赞同希腊哲学家的观点,认为男性天生在智力上优于女性。例如,正如威尔·杜兰特在《哲学的故事》中所提到的,希腊哲学家亚里士多德曾说:“女人之于男人,犹如奴隶之于主人,体力劳动者之于脑力劳动者,野蛮人之于希腊人。女人是未完成的男人,停留在发展阶梯的较低一级。”

The view about man and woman in the West emerged from the Catholic and Protestant religious perception that viewed woman, but not man, as the origin of sin. However, the Christian view did also give great value to the relationship between the man and the woman, which was confined to marriage. Marriage was valued in order to form a family, that plays an educational and moral role in the society. When the Enlightenment movement dominated the society with its modern Western thinking in the eighteenth century CE, the society adopted secularism. Secularism separated religion from life and all relation with the society, whilst imposing new concepts such as freedom, equality and social justice. Secularism gave a new perception about man and society that is contrary to Christianity. Despite that, it did not change the worldly view about women that was prevalent in society, both in theological and philosophical literature. Instead, some philosophers attempted to justify the view philosophically and intellectually. Many philosophers of liberalism and Enlightenment such as Hume, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, and Montesquieu, remained skeptical about the mental faculty of women. They endorsed the view of Greek philosophers, who maintained that the male is, by nature, mentally superior to female. For instance, as mentioned in The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said, “Woman is to man as the slave to the master, the manual to the mental worker, the barbarian to the Greek. Woman is an unfinished man, left standing on a lower step in the scale of development.”.

在十九世纪下半叶，除了约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒（John Stuart Mill）在其著作《妇女的屈从地位》（The Subjection of Women）中有所论述外，很少有西方哲学家提出性别平等的问题。在民主革命和社会世俗化之后，西欧的法律受到了既有观念的影响。世俗化并没有赋予女性新的权利，反而将她们视为低人一等。例如，1804年颁布的《拿破仑法典》，又称《法国民法典》，其第217条规定：“妻子，即使不与丈夫共同财产或财产分离，未经丈夫在该行为中的同意或书面许可，不得赠与、抵押，或以有偿或无偿的名义取得财产。”许多哲学家断言，女性因其天性不适合政治，因而远离政治。直到二十世纪，女性才获得政治权利。

Not many Western philosophers had proposed the issue of gender equality in the second half of the nineteenth century, except for a few, such as John Stuart Mill in his book, The Subjection of Women. The Western European laws were influenced by the pre-existing view, after the democratic revolution and secularization of the society. Secularization did not give new rights to women. Instead, it deemed her inferior. For example, the Napoleonic Code, also called the Civil Code of the French, issued in 1804, stipulated in article 217, “A wife, although noncommunicant or separate in property, cannot give, pledge, or acquire by free or chargeable title, without the concurrence of her husband in the act, or his consent in writing.” Many of the philosophers asserted that women stayed away from politics, because they were not suitable for it by nature. Political rights were given to women only in the twentieth century CE.

例如，法国于1945年才授予妇女选举权，距法国大革命已经过去了整整一个半世纪。正是法国大革命提出了自由、平等、博爱与理性的主张，并以女性形象玛丽安娜（Marianne）为化身，使其成为重要的共和象征和国家图腾。总而言之，现代启蒙运动并没有改变世俗社会对女性的看法。所谓的自由、平等、博爱与理性，基本上都只针对男性，将女性排除在外。约翰·斯图亚特·穆勒（John Stuart Mill）在1867年第二次议会改革法案中提出的修正案失败，便是明证。该修正案曾在英国下议院提出，旨在将选举法中的“man”（男人）一词改为“person”（人）。然而，仅有73名议员投赞成票，而反对票多达194票，形成了压倒性的多数。

For example, France granted women the right to vote in 1945, a full century and a half after the French Revolution. It is the French Revolution that called for liberty, equality, fraternity and reason and was personified in the form of the woman, Marianne, as a significant republican symbol and national icon. In summary, the modern Enlightenment movement did not change the worldly view about women. Its so-called liberty, equality, fraternity and reason were all basically directed to men alone, excluding women. An evidence for this is the failure of the amendment proposed by John Stuart Mill to the Second Reform Bill of 1867. The amendment was tabled in the British House of Commons to change the term ‘man’ to the term ‘person,’ in election laws. However, only 73 members voted in favor, whilst a majority of 194 members voted against.

尽管现代西方启蒙运动保留了关于男女在社会中各自地位的既有观念,但它改变了二者之间关系的看法及其结果。世俗主义通过采纳自由的理念,以及对幸福与快乐的界定,做到了这一点。它将男女之间的关系简化为一种性关系。它与基督教会相悖,挑战了荣誉、尊严与贞洁的观念。基督教会认为追求快乐是罪。希坡的奥古斯丁(卒于430年)教导说,性只能用于生育,而为娱乐或情欲目的的性行为则应当避免。将近一千年后,托马斯·阿奎那(卒于1274年)重申了这一观点。因此,基督教将性视为一种肉体的、情欲的、撒旦式的行为,只允许在婚姻框架内进行,仅为生育之故,并局限于一种被允许的姿势,且只能在特定的日子里进行。

Although the modern Western Enlightenment movement maintained the pre-existing view related to the respective statuses of men and women in society, it changed the view towards the relations between them and their outcome. Secularism did so through its adoption of the idea of freedom and its definition of happiness and pleasure. It reduced the view about the relations between male and female to a sexual relationship. It challenged the concept of honor, dignity and chastity, in contradiction to the Christian Church. The Christian Church considered seeking pleasure as sin. Augustine of Hippo (died 430) taught that sex was only to be used for procreation, and that recreational, or lustful, sex was to be avoided. This view which was echoed nearly a thousand years later by Thomas Aquinas (died 1274). So, Christianity considered sex as a physical, carnal, satanic act, which was allowed only within the framework of marriage, for the sake of childbearing alone and limited to a single permissible position, on particular days.

相比之下,现代西方对两性关系的看法得到了社会学和心理学兴起的支持,这两门学科建立在世俗的知识基础和唯物主义的方法论之上。因此,现代西方观念削弱了家庭的重要性,但并未将其整体废除。随后,它又扩大并夸大了社会和国家在教育中的作用,例如埃米尔·涂尔干的著作便体现了这一点。现代西方观念断言人的行为与性动机相关联,警告压抑会损害社会生产力并导致精神疾病,同时倡导性解放,西格蒙德·弗洛伊德的著作便是例证。十九世纪中叶兴起的马克思主义社会主义也沿着这一方向发展。马克思主义社会主义捍卫性解放及其所主张的性关系形态,并将废除婚姻和家庭明确列为共产主义的目标之一。它讨论了女权主义,并主张婚姻是私有财产的体现。弗里德里希·恩格斯在其著作《家庭、私有制和国家的起源》中认为,婚姻是一个性别对另一个性别的屈从,是历史上阶级斗争的一种形式。根据马克思主义的观点,婚姻使女性在社会中被边缘化,使其屈从于男性的经济优势,从而得以延续;而家庭制度则是资本主义的制度。

In contrast, the adoption of the modern Western view of sexual relationships was supported by the emergence of sociology and psychology, founded on the basis of the secular intellectual basis and materialist methodology. So the modern Western view diminished the importance of family, although it did not abolish it as a whole. It then expanded and exaggerated the role of society and state in upbringing, as manifest in the work of Emile Durkheim, for example. The modern Western view asserted the link of human behavior with sexual motives, warning of the role of repression in social productivity and mental illness, whilst promoting sexual liberation, as exemplified in the works of Sigmund Freud. Marxist socialism, that emerged in the mid of the nineteenth century CE, proceeded in this direction. Marxist socialism defended sexual liberation and its type of sexual relationships, making the abolition of marriage and family as one of the express objectives of communism. It discussed feminism and maintained that marriage is a manifestation of private property. In his book, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Friedrich Engels maintained that marriage is the submission of one gender to another and that it is a form of class struggle within history. According to the Marxist view, marriage marginalizes the role of a woman in the society, making her subservient to the economic supremacy of man, thereby persisting, whilst the family system is a capitalist institution.

19世纪公元纪年即将结束时，意识形态的冲突随之而来，并伴随着由此引发的政治和经济改革。然而，这些改变并未改善女性的处境。随后，西方社会在20世纪公元纪年的前半叶迎来了两次世界大战的爆发，女性被卷入生产与服务的领域。西方社会由此形成了一种新的局面，迫使其承认女性的部分政治、经济和社会权利。这一新局面为所谓女权运动的活动加强和诉求提出铺平了道路。此外，该运动还改变了其目标与策略。所谓第二次女权浪潮始于20世纪公元纪年的六十年代，它以一种新的愿景针对西方现存的整个社会体系，聚焦于"性别主义"，即消除基于男女二元对立的性别歧视，涵盖性别定型观念、性别角色、性别认定和性别意识。第二次女权浪潮对消除性别歧视的关注，受到自由主义、自由论、马克思主义、存在主义以及后现代解构主义哲学的启发。该运动得到了性解放运动和同性恋组织的支持。因此，其目标不再仅仅是男女平等，还包括废除一切基于性别的歧视。数十年后，性别歧视问题被包括联合国在内的国际组织采纳，联合国在1979年通过的《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》（CEDAW）中将其作为一个概念加以采用。随后，性别歧视在1994年埃及开罗国际人口与发展大会（ICPD）的文件中被明确规定为术语和概念，继而在1995年北京世界妇女大会上得到进一步确立。 许多西方国家已逐步认同“性别主义”这一观点，或是全盘接受，或是部分接受。

The nineteenth century CE ended with its ideological conflicts, accompanied by resultant political and economic reforms. However, these did not change the condition of women. Then Western societies welcomed the twentieth century CE, from its beginning to its middle, with the outbreak of two world wars that plunged women into the arena of production and service. Western societies thereby created a new situation that forced them to recognize some of the political, economic and social rights of women. This new situation paved way for the intensification of what is called the feminist movement in its activities and raising of demands. Moreover, the movement changed its objectives and strategies. What is called the second-wave of feminism began in the sixties of the twentieth century CE, targeting the entire social system pre-existing in the West with a new vision focused on genderism, which is eliminating gender discrimination based on male-female duality, encompassing gender stereotyping, gender roles, gender determination and gender awareness. Second-wave feminism’s focus on eliminating gender discrimination was inspired by the philosophies of liberalism, freedom, Marxism, existentialism and the post-modernist deconstructionism. The movement was supported by sexual liberation movements and gay organizations. Thus, the objective had become not just for the sake of equality between men and women, but also for the sake of abolition of all discrimination between genders. After decades, the subject of gender discrimination was adopted by the international organizations including the United Nations, which adopted it as a concept in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) of 1979. Then gender discrimination was stipulated as a term and concept in the documents of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, Egypt, of 1994, followed by the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Many Western nations have gradually endorsed the view of genderism, as a whole or partially.

总之，西方在数十年间，由于经济、文化、政治和社会等诸多因素，改变了其对男性、女性以及两性关系本质的看法。可以说，现代西方社会制度是一种组织异性恋者或同性恋者相遇的制度，即他们相遇所形成的关系，以及由此衍生或导致的各种结果。这是一种无效的制度，与理智和天性（人的本性，fitra）相悖。其无效性在于它所建立的基础之中已清楚可见：

In summary, the West changed its view about men, women and the nature of relationships between them as a consequence of many factors pertaining to economic, cultural, political and social matters, that occurred over many decades. It can be said that the modern Western social system is the system that organizes the meeting of two heterosexuals or homosexuals, that means the relationship created between them by their meeting and what branches out or results from it. It is an invalid system contradicting the intellect and fitra (human nature). Its invalidity is evident in the foundations upon which it is built: