RE: A contradiction in the liberal view of gender
August 23, 2017 at 12:55 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2017 at 12:58 pm by shadow.)
(August 23, 2017 at 10:19 am)emjay Wrote: There's also a flip side to that stereotype-distorting conformity that Khemikal has touched upon; rebelling against a stereotype... eg accentuating the opposites/differences to the stereotype. I'd say that's just as distorting of the actual picture, because by accentuating those opposite/different aspects, it creates new stereotypes that probably would not have been extracted by the passive stereotyping process of the brain on their own. Personally I'd guess that that sort of effect is in play a lot in the gay world, both for gay men and lesbians, because there are uber-masculine and uber-feminine stereotypes in both camps eg 'camp' and 'butch'. So if we assume that the original gay (male) stereotype was camp... after all, that's how it's always portrayed in old TV... limp wrists and mincing etc... uber-feminine... then the now existence of uber-masculine gay stereotypes might have spawned in rebellion against that.
That's really true. It's what bothers me about some affirmative action things like 'Women in STEM' awards. If you put false incentives on something (like women pursuing STEM) you're not going to have a natural proportion of people pursuing it. I think it can be different if one group is clearly disadvantaged, but for something like science it's not like girls have fewer opportunities to study it than guys (at least in Canada, I'm sure its different elsewhere).
(August 23, 2017 at 12:54 pm)Khemikal Wrote: An acceptance of how things are as opposed to how we wish them to be isn't an inconsistency. I wish that everyone had food to eat. They don't. My plan to then get food to those I can does not, somehow, express an inconsistency in my stated ideology of "everyone should have food" by fiat of the fact that I cannot and do not even try to get food to everyone.
You're looking for a way, in this, to preserve your initial opinion of a contradiction - which was simply and flatly wrong.
I don't think that's an accurate parallel to draw. Adopting one of two extreme gender roles does not bridge the gap between them, as bringing food to those who don't have it bridges the gap between those who have food and those who don't. One is actively solving the problem, one is more of a compromise.
