Post by Night Bear on Dec 31, 2011 11:05:10 GMT -5
Now before you say anything, no I'm not against feminism. I'm not anti-woman (since I am a woman myself) and I'm not against equal rights for all or anything like that. I would love for there to be a world where men and women are treated equally (unless certain circumstances don't allow it, like weight lifting) and not discriminated against.
But the problem is that feminism, at least the more extreme form of it, is not the answer. The issue I want to address is something that I feel is often overlooked. And here it is:
Feminism seems to often only address oppression and problems suffered by only one side: the women. It completely ignores anything against men. Feminist extremists deliberately ignore and dismiss any data that shows any kind of unfairness towards men, and the few that do accept it still believe that "male superiority" is the entire problem. This way of thinking is not only unfair; it could lead to a complete reversal of what they believe is going on now: we could end up in a country where men are the ones highly oppressed and women have all the power.
Many feminists believe that what we live in now is a patriarch, where fathers have more authority than mothers. And while that may have been true years ago, it's not so much anymore. Feminists see a world today as dominated by men, but I see a different world where the balance is shifting to strongly favor women and biased against men.
Think about it. Men have less reproductive rights. People seem more relaxed when a man's genitals are cut off, but appalled if the same thing happens to a woman, despite both being the same type of excruciating pain. Men have less rights for custody of children. If a man wants to help a lost child, he runs the risk of being accused for a pedophile, while a woman raises less suspicion. If a man and a woman are found guilty of the same crime, the man gets more jail time than the woman.
And while feminists can make the argument of how, throughout most of history, men had all or most of the power, they fail to mention something else men also had more of: work and responsibility. Men were expected to fight in the wars and die for the kings/country/whatever else. They were expected to do the bulk of the work. Men can be drafted into wars without a say on their part. Women weren't expected to do this. Sure they usually had less rights compared to men, but they also did not have to worry about the work.
It's easy to believe that all domestic violence is men against women, but this is only because that's what the media cares about and shows. They neglect or don't take seriously the times when it's a man who is the victim. And that is often the case; much of the time, if not most of the time, if memory serves me right, domestic violence involves a woman against a man, and it's usually the woman that strikes first.
Men can be and are abused by women, and they are also raped by women. The media likes to portray women as the ones being raped, yet they seem to not spare a passing glance when a man is raped by a woman. Rape and abuse are still rape and abuse and should be taken seriously, regardless of gender.
Men today do suffer from sexism. Men are excepted to not cry, to be strong and hold in their emotions. Men can be more emotional than women but they cannot express themselves without thinking someone will see them as weak, due to the way this society is. Men are more likely to be suspected of a violent crime. Men are viewed as angrier and more violent. Men are less likely to be believed than women.
There may be people who like to believe a country run by women would be a more peaceful one, but it may end up to be a more violent one. According to a study, women do have the potential of becoming more aggressive than men, and in history there was a notoriously violent group of people, the Mongols, and they were big on feminism. Women had about as much power as men, if I recall correctly, yet that didn't make them a more peaceful group.
So yeah I am all for equal rights between the genders. But we will never achieve that if we pretend men don't suffer abuse either, if we pretend that men are treated with some kind of extreme favoritism. To made the genders equal, you cannot just defend one side and only address problems from one side. You have to look at the other side as well and recognize any injustice there too.
I do respect what feminism is trying to bring: gender equality. But I feel that, for at least some feminists, their proposals are one-sided, often ignoring any problems men may have, even if the problems are just as bad or worse than what they feel the women suffer.
I apologize if I offended anyone.
But the problem is that feminism, at least the more extreme form of it, is not the answer. The issue I want to address is something that I feel is often overlooked. And here it is:
Feminism seems to often only address oppression and problems suffered by only one side: the women. It completely ignores anything against men. Feminist extremists deliberately ignore and dismiss any data that shows any kind of unfairness towards men, and the few that do accept it still believe that "male superiority" is the entire problem. This way of thinking is not only unfair; it could lead to a complete reversal of what they believe is going on now: we could end up in a country where men are the ones highly oppressed and women have all the power.
Many feminists believe that what we live in now is a patriarch, where fathers have more authority than mothers. And while that may have been true years ago, it's not so much anymore. Feminists see a world today as dominated by men, but I see a different world where the balance is shifting to strongly favor women and biased against men.
Think about it. Men have less reproductive rights. People seem more relaxed when a man's genitals are cut off, but appalled if the same thing happens to a woman, despite both being the same type of excruciating pain. Men have less rights for custody of children. If a man wants to help a lost child, he runs the risk of being accused for a pedophile, while a woman raises less suspicion. If a man and a woman are found guilty of the same crime, the man gets more jail time than the woman.
And while feminists can make the argument of how, throughout most of history, men had all or most of the power, they fail to mention something else men also had more of: work and responsibility. Men were expected to fight in the wars and die for the kings/country/whatever else. They were expected to do the bulk of the work. Men can be drafted into wars without a say on their part. Women weren't expected to do this. Sure they usually had less rights compared to men, but they also did not have to worry about the work.
It's easy to believe that all domestic violence is men against women, but this is only because that's what the media cares about and shows. They neglect or don't take seriously the times when it's a man who is the victim. And that is often the case; much of the time, if not most of the time, if memory serves me right, domestic violence involves a woman against a man, and it's usually the woman that strikes first.
Men can be and are abused by women, and they are also raped by women. The media likes to portray women as the ones being raped, yet they seem to not spare a passing glance when a man is raped by a woman. Rape and abuse are still rape and abuse and should be taken seriously, regardless of gender.
Men today do suffer from sexism. Men are excepted to not cry, to be strong and hold in their emotions. Men can be more emotional than women but they cannot express themselves without thinking someone will see them as weak, due to the way this society is. Men are more likely to be suspected of a violent crime. Men are viewed as angrier and more violent. Men are less likely to be believed than women.
There may be people who like to believe a country run by women would be a more peaceful one, but it may end up to be a more violent one. According to a study, women do have the potential of becoming more aggressive than men, and in history there was a notoriously violent group of people, the Mongols, and they were big on feminism. Women had about as much power as men, if I recall correctly, yet that didn't make them a more peaceful group.
So yeah I am all for equal rights between the genders. But we will never achieve that if we pretend men don't suffer abuse either, if we pretend that men are treated with some kind of extreme favoritism. To made the genders equal, you cannot just defend one side and only address problems from one side. You have to look at the other side as well and recognize any injustice there too.
I do respect what feminism is trying to bring: gender equality. But I feel that, for at least some feminists, their proposals are one-sided, often ignoring any problems men may have, even if the problems are just as bad or worse than what they feel the women suffer.
I apologize if I offended anyone.
