I think I may have stumbled upon the reason religious-right men are so fixated on women's reproductive rights or the lack thereof. I think they regard women as livestock.
In animal husbandry, the object is to get the most utility from each head of livestock. When a hen stops laying, it becomes food. You don't keep a racehorse after it's through racing unless you can use it as breeding stock.
Have you listened to people talk about their livestock? It's not a chicken; it's a hen or a rooster (and you don't need many roosters). It's not a horse; it's a mare or a stallion (and you don't need a lot of stallions). I'm uncomfortable with that last analogy because gelding doesn't sound that good. In their minds, to have a fecund woman not producing offspring offends nature. When their wives no longer engage them on that level, they have affairs. (I guess they could do worse.)
I was a bit puzzled at first that these men seem to have little if any concern for any offspring, but I'm reminded of my foster family's milk cow who was bred as her milk production fell off and the calf was eaten shortly after its birth. The offspring are by-products.
A couple of questions come to mind. I have no idea why these men's mothers, wives, and daughters have allowed these men to live so long while they were being totally disrespectful of said mothers', wives', and daughters' humanity.
