The Dhammapada Verse 242 reads
The impurity of a woman is unchaste behaviour, the impurity of one who gives is stinginess.
Impure things are truly unskilled, in this world and the next.
Impure things are truly unskilled, in this world and the next.
DhpV.242
The first sentence "The impurity of a woman is unchaste behaviour," this on its own doesn't sound enlightened, but rather bigoted, yet, if you know the origin story at face value it still doesn't sound very good.
A married woman had an affair, her husband was so ashamed of this that he avoided all his friends and the Buddha. After some time he went to see the Buddha and told him of his shame and why he had avoided coming to see him. The Buddha told him this verse (and the following DhpV. 243 - of these impurities there is a greater one, Ignorance is the greatest impurity. Having removed this impurity, a mendicant lives free from impurity.), saying that the greatest of all impurities is ignorance
This doesn't mean the Buddha was sexist, I don't believe anyone could legitimately call him that as he taught everyone equally, never hiding what he knew of relevance, However, the Buddha said this in the backdrop of the society he lived in, because the man needed comforting, and a way to come to terms fully with what had happened with his marriage, & move on.
People on occasion say to someone when they are having difficulties with the other sex "you know what men/women are like" for that very reason; men & women often fall into certain steriotypes on one anothers consciousness; and socially certain behaviours are traditionally more acceptable for one sex than the other. So if you look at this verse, bearing these in mind, it makes more sense for the Buddha to say it, than as it may appear due to certain prejudices individuals may have.
however, no one really knows exactly what the Buddha said, as no one alive today herd the Buddha speak, or knows what the Buddha thought, what we do know is that the Buddha is a historical person who taught a path, everything else wasn't written it was memorised, and some altering may of occurred and some add-ons may have crept in the centuries from the death to the writing down of the Sutta‘s, and final placement within the canon.
People on occasion say to someone when they are having difficulties with the other sex "you know what men/women are like" for that very reason; men & women often fall into certain steriotypes on one anothers consciousness; and socially certain behaviours are traditionally more acceptable for one sex than the other. So if you look at this verse, bearing these in mind, it makes more sense for the Buddha to say it, than as it may appear due to certain prejudices individuals may have.
however, no one really knows exactly what the Buddha said, as no one alive today herd the Buddha speak, or knows what the Buddha thought, what we do know is that the Buddha is a historical person who taught a path, everything else wasn't written it was memorised, and some altering may of occurred and some add-ons may have crept in the centuries from the death to the writing down of the Sutta‘s, and final placement within the canon.
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