(November 15, 2015 at 3:13 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: Holy crap, what did I miss?
I'm a "man-hating feminist", I suppose, by your definitions. I recognize the immeasurable privileges I hold in this society by being a white male. I recognize the Patriarchy that has made our culture the way it is. Patriarchal values have destroyed countless lives and continue to do so, and they affect us in subtle ways in almost every exchange we have in this society.
Yes, men have to deal with some things that are difficult, even the occasional double standards, but the worst we will ever go through pales in comparison to every day of the life of women in our supposedly-enlightened society.
While nobody questions that there are feminist extremists who take the concept too far, it's insane to try to equate the far fringe with the common views of the overall movement. It's why I am a male and am proud to call myself a feminist. The idea that trying to root out wrongs that have been perpetrated against women for so long that most men never even notice it's happening or think there's anything wrong with how we are socialized to treat women, for trying to ensure that the business world does not discriminate against women just because it has been a "boys club" for centuries, for trying to attack our "rape culture" in which men feel entitled to the bodies of women they like, and for trying to stem the overwhelming tide of domestic abuse and intimidation that marks the lives of women everywhere, equals "oppression" or hatred of men is beyond ludicrous.
The data are clear: if the nation does not take legal action to protect women from discrimination, they will be routinely discriminated against, based on a long social tradition that has oppressed and used them throughout most of our culture's history.
Being skeptics, we are free to question any or all aspects of feminism... but when you start whining about oh poor men we're so oppressed, you lose me. It simply is not borne out by any significant studies of the subject, and a few anecdotes here and there do not change the overwhelmingly one-sided data that shows we have a long way to go before we have a society in which I would feel proud to tell my daughter (I don't know yet, but have hope my baby due in late January is female) she will be growing up. Until then I fight to fix it. And I tell guys who want to whine about feminism and speak about egalitarianism that feminism is egalitarianism. There's no difference, except in the minds of a few radical proponents of matriarchy (something I doubt strongly would be any better than what it purports to replace), between feminism and egalitarianism... but the fact that you think there is only shows that the feminists' fight is not even close to being completed.
What privileges do you have by being a white male in society and what do all women have to go through that a man will never have to go through?
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
