"If you're not a Feminist, you're a Sexist"

[DeistPaladin]

the only problem I see with it, is that it implies that women want their cake and we want to eat it, too.

Can't have it all ways. If I want to be paid equally as a man for doing the same job, then shouldn't I be required to have to be 'as responsible' of a citizen, as a man? Men and women are biologically different, but it becomes worse I think for a society to cherry pick where women wish to be treated as equals, and where we 'draw the line,' so to speak.

I don't see it that way because I don't see how one issue relates to the other. I think part of the problem is the prevailing misunderstanding that for the genders to be equal, they must be completely interchangeable and gender must be purely cosmetic.

Perhaps my use of the word "expendable", even when couched with the qualifier "if need be", was too blunt or even rude. Please understand, I'm speaking of the scenarios of when the shit really hits the fan, as in the ship is going down, civil order has collapsed or the country is overrun. I'm sure we all hope the things I'm discussing remain theoretical as our lives are concerned.

I also embrace idealism but only when its grounded in a realistic assessment of what can be changed and what can't. I face reality as it is and not as I wish it were. It is a truism among freethinkers that we choose to face an unpleasant truth rather than retreat into a comforting world of fantasy.

To use my earlier example of how some feminists get upset over images of scantily clad young beautiful women. Sorry ladies, but men like looking at that and that's not changing. We like sex and we are visual, however much some of you may wish we weren't. Now, that said, you can work within that reality to make it better. You can create a culture where men are taught about sexual boundaries. You can create a culture where men do not view women as just sex objects. You can create a culture where women aren't made to feel like they're garbage just because they don't have that perfect body. Like that cliched "serenity prayer", we strive to change what can be and accept (and work around) what can't (just strip the woo out of that 'prayer' and it's good advice).

Back to the topic of women and children first, I will acknowledge that this rule has been used by some societies as an excuse to marginalize women. I just don't see how it necessarily follows. Women can still be CEOs of corporations, scientists or hold highest offices in the land. They can still get equal pay for equal work. None of that relates. The president of the United States is more powerful than the secret service agents. That doesn't mean that when the shit hits the fan, he (or in the future, she) isn't quickly moved to safety while the agents do their job. The fact that these agents play their roles in times of crisis doesn't mean the president is any less powerful or respected.