Monday, November 8, 2010
Feminist Movement: The Most Ironic Thing Ever
“Women are unhappy precisely because they are free. Women are enslaved by their own liberation.” I could not have said it better myself. Throughout our whole unit on the feminist movement, I was never able to clearly express how ironic the movement was. Their own yearning for freedom ended up castrating them; but was this just me being overly analytical? The feminist movement truly is the worst thing that could have happened to the sex. How does this work? How do the freedoms a group of people gain end up hindering them more than helping them? A survey said that “men’s opposition to equality is a major cause of resentment and stress and a major irritant for most women today.”Women are blaming men for the hardships they face. This chapter in the book gives facts about how when a certain goal for women was being advocated, the government tried to deter it. In all honesty, although it may sound extremely sexist, I believe that feminist groups use the idea that men are the bad guy as a scapegoat. They are upset that they have not achieved the same level of power as man, but man has been working to achieve this power since the founding of America. I do not know if this next argument is either relevant or politically correct, but the same goes for all types of races. You do not see very many Latin Americans or Indians in super high positions in America. The white man has been groomed for a position of power since 1776, so how can you expect a new “type” of person to be as well suited for this position of power if they have just been told they can do it not even 100 years ago. Women get mad at men and think that they are taking away their positions but, more often than not, the man would be more suited for it. Women have the right to run for a seat in government so why don’t they do it? Is it because “America is not ready” or “they will be looked at poorly”? That is not true at all. Women have the opportunities to rise up but when they get to afraid to do so, they instantly blame the man in power. What benefit would man have from stopping the feminist movement? No man wakes up and thinks “Oh no, what if I lose my job to the new tier of women who are becoming successful.” If both a boy and a girl grow up in Country A, with equal opportunities and level of schooling, and they are both equally as smart and equally as committed, it is farfetched to say that the boy in Country A is going to succeed in life much more than the girl. Women and men are equal in every sense of the word, its only when the women realize that it takes more than rallying for abortions and writing books about how stupid men are to become successful. The first step is getting your rights, so now go out and use them to your full ability. Don’t just sit back and blame someone else for something that you are afraid to acquire. I hope that does not sound to sexist, but it is my opinion.
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Oh, boy! I think this is going to start one interesting discussion!
ReplyDeleteAlthough you bring up relevant points, I completely disagree with you. If you look at situations around the world men constantly have a problem with women being more successful. Men definitely have egos and if in a relationship a woman is the breadwinner it is a blow to their ego. You can see this in many relatiotionships that are expressed in the tabloids. I wonder what you would do if you were in a relationship where a woman was earning more? would that not affect you? Women were never given a chance, we were not given the right to vote and discriminated in works place. Men are not the scapegoat they are the sole reason, in Afghanistan many girls are killed for wanting to get educated, and in India many girl babies are killed because men believe that they were not capable of benefiting the family or too much of a burden of a family. Women need to be given a chance to achieve full power but we cant because every step of the way there is a man standing there telling us we cant. So take into consideration what is happening in the world, we are denied an education, even the right to live and who defines this or makes these decisions its the man.
ReplyDeleteYa I will admit that I would not prefer earning less than my wife, but I would not hinder her to the extent where she does not have the ability to work. Your evidence from Afghanistan and India have broadened my view on what I said before but when I was speaking about how woman use men as a scapegoat, I was thinking more about America. Why do women get beat and killed in India and Afghanistan? I would say that it has to do a lot with the culture they live in which inherently favor men over women. In modern day America I think that if there is any of this, it is very little. Can you not say that in America (I agree with what you are saying about India, Afghanistan, etc.) both man and woman have equal opportunities? American society has diverged from the cult of domesticity but I think that woman still cling onto the idea that men want whats worse for women. I will admit that a habit is hard to break and there still is a stigma that men should be the breadwinners, but I believe in the society we live in today, the idea of men and women being equal is broadcasted to such an extent that women cannot use it to fall back on when they don't achieve their goals. I understand that overall women make less than men and other statistics like that and I cannot understand why. Woman should not be looked down upon, but along with that, they should not blame man for their hardships
ReplyDeleteOkay, I have to admit, your post changed my mind for like five seconds. But then I came back to my senses.
ReplyDeleteYou admit that you "would not prefer earning less" than your wife. And I am pretty sure that when a girl beats you in arm wrestling, it will bother you too. Also, you wouldn't want to be the one who is doing the dishes that when your wife is sitting in an office. I also heard that in one discussion in a history class with the question, "To what extent should women be able to use their rights?", not a single male student stood up and said that man and woman should share household and work duties and they came to consensus that they wanted their sewing done, clean laundries, and hot meals home-made for dinner. Cult of domesticity is still on-going. So there you go. It is so clear that you men, want higher status for women because that ego is so deeply ingrained and is inherent from the past.
About your point about women not running for seats in government, recently, there were several women who you are probably also familiar with, Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin, who ran and were relatively successful. However, they were constantly ridiculed for the matters that had nothing to do with politics. There is a discussion in New York Times that talks about what Hilary Clinton wears, some criticize and some favors it (http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/fashion/21IMAGE.html). Same goes for Sarah Palin. Female politicians, even the few who exist are constantly brought down by their physical appearances. Do people talk about Obama’s suit is or the fact that he has little hair? I don’t think so.
So do you still think that women are blaming on men for no reason?
The cult of domesticity was not started by a man. In fact at the time Catherine Beecher said that women should go into the role of teaching and put family first. Because of the past roles that have been placed on women, it is obvious that man would feel threatened by woman's increasing power. But is there any evidence to say that man hampers said progress? I was using the idea about women running for government because men would feel threatened by that. It is obvious that women will get criticized for what women are normally criticized for: appearance etc. I don't think you can say that any male candidate has never been criticized for things that have nothing to do with their political platform. I still believe that man has no right to be in the hot seat and get blamed by women for their mishaps.
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