In Who Stole Feminism? philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers distinguishes 2 schools of thought. Equity feminism, which oppose sex discrimination and unfairness to women, and gender feminism, which is an empirical doctrine regarding human nature. According to gender feminism the differences in the roles of between men and women are not rooted in biology or psychology, but socially constructed and motivated out of the urge for power. It further claims that men as a group oppose women. Genders are taken as competing units.
Equity feminism is simply fairness applied to the genders and in the classical liberal tradition. Anyone oppose it?
Any informed feminists please fill in the details or correct my skeletal representations.
I had this job once about three or four years ago in a Philosophy department at a university before I got the one I have now. On my first day there I met about eighteen PhDs, each of whom introduced themselves by their first names. Except one, who introduced herself as “Dr. ______”. I took note of the fact that this seemed odd.
Later, upon reviewing her credentials, I found out that she got her degree from MIT,(read Massachussetts liberal/know it all), and specialized in philosophy of feminism.
How could you be an MIT grad and still be so insecure as to go around pointing out your degree to people? By being a woman. That’s how.
My views on feminism is this:
Get over it ladies, you’re the least discriminated against minority.
Any status that you desire beyond that you’ll have to fight for.
It wont be rational or fair.
I don’t make the rules, I just recognize them.
Yeah but that was just ONE woman, you can’t generalize all women from her.
That’s really funny, though.
I don’t like when they insist on growing out their armpit hair…
but maybe that is just because I get grossed out when I see the conflict between my (asshole manly) idea of what a female is supposed to look like, and the sight of what I’ve pretty much solidified as a “male” characteristic in my head.
In essence, when I see a woman with armpit hair my brain tells my mind “man-woman”.
And not only that. I have also equated females with “nice smell” and the sight of underarm hair with sweat, testosterone, and body-odor.
So I see the female, and at the same time I cognitize a male, and unflattering body odor smells.
Feminism can be seperated into groups. The most basic with out malice towards males is the suffragette. All that female, wants is equal rights and equal pay for equal work. Now go on down to the other end of the line and you have what I like to refer to as Amazonian cannibals. They would just love for the male gender to vanish altogether because they feel men are the root of all evil.
Most women fall inbetween these two groups somwhere. The majority leaning more on the suffragette side. I am a suffragette. I do enjoy being treated like a lady. I am an equal human to males but, I do enjoy being feminine.
I probably should give an example of being treated as a lady.
If I get a flat tire I know that some man will more than likely help me change the tire. In return for being treated in such a manner I help men out when they need it like in a store. I have seen many men standing lost in front of store shelves with a list in their hands. They have no clue what they are supposed to choose or do. I assist them. Gender roles are real wther society constructed them or not, it is irrelevent. They exist. So we are obliged to assist each other as needed. I trust that if I am stuck on a road alone 90% of males will help me rather than harm me.
Genders are different but, equal. If we were the same we would not need each other.
I am not a femenist. As a male, it is in my interest to keep women down. In my view, “liberated women” are not women at all any longer, but rather “persons.” Besides conversation on the train, or as co-workers, bosses, shop-keepers and so on, I have no use what-so-ever for emancipated women.
“Gender feminism” seems hokey to me, as there are quite evidently behavioral differences between men and women which are improbably the result of culture.
Even though a woman may cut her hair short, wear pants and lose all semblance of femininity, inside, she still thinks like a woman; she may very well behave and look like a man, but she does not desire the same thing a man desires; even a dyke is not a man. Oh, Man is man and woman is woman, and never the twain shall meet.
To the homosexual-Americans who are spitting mad at this Old-World way of seeing things: eat another burger and reflect on the Jains and Hindoos --who never eat a cow or harm a living thing, but keep their women indoors and dressed in the most beautiful purple and orange dresses and scarves.
Gender related issues are always blurred. We’re all people (well, most of us) first. We now have the brain studies to show that there are biological differences that make a difference in gender related brain activity which strongly suggests psychological differences as well. Equity feminism may create culture clash, but it also makes common sense. The biological gender traits demand certain roles for men and women, and that blurrs the lines even further. I have yet to see a man nurse a baby. We ain’t got the right equipment. Mom is mom, and with that comes certain family and social expectations. So a woman is always a woman, but that doesn’t make her less than equal in worth even as she plays a different biological role than a man. Working out the “details” in man-woman relationships has no hard and fast rules.
As a male, I’ve always considered women to be equal if not superior to males. They carry more survival responsibility than males.
Of course, we have to consider the macho male: I never was macho, just lazy. If I could get a woman to do it, it was fine with me…
Be that as it may, the White plantation owners who were well aware that the Black slaves were not “less than equal in worth” still happily lived the good life off this inequality. “All life is precious;” but this doesn’t stop most people from eating non-veg. Matters of morality are easily overlooked when personal profit and welfare are at stake.
No doubt they are tired of lying there and getting fucked with no concern for their “needs.”
The Western Empire has already fallen, but a masculinist Byzantium will hold out for a very long time --and men will still have their clothes washed, floors swept and cocks sucked in the East long after there is a woman in the White House.
(begin excerpt)
"As I said, I got nothing against the feminists.
In fact, I happen to agree with most of the feminist philosophy I have read.
I agree for instance, that for the most part, men are vain, ignorant, greedy, brutal assholes who’ve just about ruined this planet
who’ve just about ruined this planet because they’re afraid someone might have a bigger dick out there somewhere.
Men are basically insecure about the size of their dicks and so they go to war over it. "
(end excerpt)
I was wondering along those lines myself. I would have thought a philosophy forum would attract progressive-minded types. I thought this thread would draw some elaborations on the various avenues feminism has taken, some critiques of the radical varieties, but not knee jerk opposition to the modest demands of equity feminism. BTW, are there any women in this forum? Sorry if you’re one, ariellowen. If you are, rally your sisters
I’m a sexual egalitarian. I would call myself a feminist, but these days that means being pro-female, rather than egalitarian. I believe that equality, as they say, goes both ways. On the other hand, biologically there are a few pretty fundamental differences between them that, short of some pretty radical evolution in human physicality, remain problematic to any program or ideal of equality.
It doesn’t help calling anyone who either makes a joke or doesn’t come out explicitly firing ‘for the ladies’ a ‘chauvinist pig’. Just a suggestion.
