@frimmel:
Well maybe someone could help me out. Aside from the signs, could someone enlighten me to:
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The government enforced rights that men have that women do not also have in equal measure.
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The government enforced obligations that women have that men do not have in equal measure.
I found this an interesting read.
When I say I am researching how culture exploits men, the first reaction is usually “How can you say culture exploits men, when men are in charge of everything?” This is a fair objection and needs to be taken seriously. It invokes the feminist critique of society. This critique started **when some women systematically looked up at the top of society and saw men everywhere: most world rulers, presidents, prime ministers, most members of Congress and parliaments, most CEOs of major corporations, and so forth — these are mostly men.
Seeing all this, the feminists thought, wow, men dominate everything, so society is set up to favor men. It must be great to be a man.
The mistake in that way of thinking is to look only at the top. If one were to look downward to the bottom of society instead, one finds mostly men there too.** Who’s in prison, all over the world, as criminals or political prisoners? The population on Death Row has never approached 51% female. Who’s homeless? Again, mostly men. Whom does society use for bad or dangerous jobs? US Department of Labor statistics report that 93% of the people killed on the job are men. Likewise, who gets killed in battle? Even in today’s American army, which has made much of integrating the sexes and putting women into combat, the risks aren’t equal. This year we passed the milestone of 3,000 deaths in Iraq, and of those, 2,938 were men, 62 were women. …
…Most cultures have tended to use men for these high-risk, high-payoff slots much more than women. I shall propose there are important pragmatic reasons for this. The result is that some men reap big rewards while others have their lives ruined or even cut short. Most cultures shield their women from the risk and therefore also don’t give them the big rewards. I’m not saying this is what cultures ought to do, morally, but cultures aren’t moral beings. They do what they do for pragmatic reasons driven by competition against other systems and other groups.
I’m an egalitarian and if you are as well it doesn’t take much of a look around to see the obvious double standards that women and men are held too.
Well, I’m so glad that sexism doesn’t exist anymore. It took thousands of years but it finally joined racism, murder, rape and assault in going completely extinct ever since the US government outlawed it in the late 20th century. Whew. I can live a happy peaceful life now.
Sarcasm aside, just because the government says sexist practices are illegal doesn’t mean they doesn’t exist. You know as well as I do that sexism not only exists but is also prolific here and in the rest of the world.
I dug this up. Yes, I know that it’s dated 2003, but it still applies.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/17/Worldandnation/At_work__When_duty_ca.shtml
“When I talk to the lieutenants now, or captains, most of them have never experienced an incident of sexual harassment,” Corbett said recently. “It happens, but hopefully it’s happening to a lesser extent.”
Yes, HOPEFULLY.
After the Gulf War, Congress repealed the law banning women from flying combat aircraft and serving on combat ships. They are still forbidden to serve in ground combat units that may directly engage the enemy, including infantry, field artillery, armor and Special Forces.
Hmmmm. Women being forbidden to perform some duties in the military. Kind of takes dumps on the “double standards favor women” and “more men have died in Iraq” things. I wonder how close those numbers would be if you eliminated from those statistics all of the men who died from the infantry, armor, arty ,or special forces combat units that women aren’t allowed to serve in. Yeah, my grandmother didn’t die driving a tank in WWII, either. Guess that proves that in 1945 sexism didn’t exist in the military.
The mistake in that way of thinking is to look only at the top. If one were to look downward to the bottom of society instead, one finds mostly men there too. Who’s in prison, all over the world, as criminals or political prisoners? The population on Death Row has never approached 51% female. Who’s homeless? Again, mostly men. Whom does society use for bad or dangerous jobs?
And what exactly does more men being in prison or homeless prove, anyway? There are more stupid men out there? Unless you can somehow connect it to pro-women practices, then those statements are irrelevant.
On the other hand, you’re right about them with regard to being political prisoners around the world. They usually don’t make it to prison. Most of the time the ones with little press are simply raped and murdered. The ones who have gained some measure of notoriety are assasinated. Ask Benazir Bhutto about that. Well, ask her children, anyway.
Most cultures shield their women from the risk
No, they don’t. Historically, cultures have actively subjugated women, not shielded them. Oh, and did I say historically? I also meant currently. Just so nobody gets the wrong idea.
I’m an egalitarian and if you are as well it doesn’t take much of a look around to see the obvious double standards that women and men are held too.
The double standards exist because if we relied simply on equality under the law then progress for women’s equality would be excruciatingly slow to non-existant. Again, it is the least we can do.
In my country, the United States, there are still enough men who hold all or at least part of this philosophy with regard to womens equality that it proves women still aren’t as equal as you may think: The law SAYS we’re equal NOW. So we’re equal. I get it. Now, go clean the house and take care of the kids. I’ll be back later to beat you for serving me a cold dinner. By the way, nice ass.
@ncscswitch:
Well, while we are at it, I want to protest the “Work Zone” signs, since you almost never see actual WORK being done in a “Work Zone”. It is usually just cones, flashing yellow lights and some poor slob with a sign that they alternate between “slow” and “stop”, with that being an accurate representation of the progress being made on the project.
Perhaps what we REALLY need to change these signs to is:
“Your tax dollars at waste ahead”
Maybe with a pictograph of a person in a hard hat sleeping below…
:lol: You said it.
But, if you want completely represent my home state of Illinois the sign would have to depict a bunch of guys standing around watching a person in a hard hat sleeping below……
