To the Other Woman: Stop Deceiving Yourself and Get on with Your Life - Assignment Example

She said that such women have problems in dealing with long-term commitments.  Being just mistresses, they can easily end a relationship and shift to another without any legal impediment, something that married women certainly cannot do.             Livingstone may be correct in saying that many women content themselves with being involved with married men.  She also accurately pointed out the superficial sense of value as “saviors” they have.

  However, I do not completely agree with her conclusion that it is fear of commitment that prompts them to accept being mistresses.  I believe such a statement is a sweeping generalization.             The essay’s conclusion excludes other factors that may lay the basis for women to enter into such illicit arrangements.  These are social and cultural, two aspects that influence a person’s outlook on everything, including sexual and romantic relationships.

Disregarding these may lead to an inaccurate appreciation of these women’s faults.  In many cases, such women have been chastised to the point of being treated like social deviants because of this myopic judgment.             In many societies nowadays, women are still considered lesser beings compared to men.  Of course, is not as obvious as it was before.  We can see women sit in top government posts or take the helm of big businesses.

  However, a macho consumerist society still exists, one that considers women as commodities.  By force of rotten cultural influences stemming from such society, less privileged women have considered being mistresses to wealthier married men as means to achieve financial security.             When the women’s liberation movement became a force, certain social and cultural changes took shape.  Such changes were prompted by women’s struggle to break men’s dominance.

  However, along with this are the notions that marriage is an institution that upholds male dominance.  For this reason, so-called liberated women consider marriage as an unequal proposition.  Consequently, they do not respect this institution and they consider men cheating on their wives as normal.  They also think that having an affair with married men is also natural.             A number of women who are mistresses simply become so because of love.

  These cases may be fewer compared to those who fall prey to decadent social influences.  However, women falling in love with married men do happen.  In fact, many of them have become life-long mistresses.  They may be accused of being selfish or irresponsible but they certainly do not fear commitment.  Even if their men spend more time with the wives, they still hold on to the affairs.             Mistresses and cheating husbands have become so common in our society.

  True, this issue has yet to be addressed.  Otherwise, more families will be broken. Since the family is the basic social unit, this will result in a less organized society too.  However, for effective solutions to be created, correct appreciation of the problem must first be made.  We must avoid casting stones on the “other woman.”   Instead, let us find ways of ridding society of conditions that bring about such cases.