A Crash Course in Feminism Mk. II (or, why everyone should be a feminist)

[Kirsten]

this is pretty shocking

[url]http://www.upworthy.com/that-awkward-moment-when-you-realize-america-is-way-more-sexist-than-you-could-have-imagined?c=ufb1[/url]

[eldargal]

Gah.

So unlike men womens rights aren't recognised in the constitution of the US. Tell me again institutional sexism doesn't exist and that feminism is irrelevant in this day and age.

[Mr Mystery]

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24540484]Not necessarily Feminist, but a very interesting read[/url]

Actually, further reading, it's a damned solid feminist manifesto. Employed and equal paid women are good for economy and equality.

[eldargal]

That is totally feminist. Have to some some of the comments 'ermagerd this means men are being forced out of the workplace, so much for equality!11'.

[Mr Mystery]

That is totally feminist. Have to some some of the comments 'ermagerd this means men are being forced out of the workplace, so much for equality!11'.

Yeah. Except it's not men being 'forced out'. Just competed out. Like you know, the 99% of applicants for my position. I was 1 in 100 last year. This year, I'm even rarer. And it's not due to my testicles, but my brain. Good mix of genders here! Nobody is ever forced out of their job because women want more work.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Hilariously it also says pretty clearly that the woman consumer drives further employment of women.
It's almost like someone not a long time ago said that companies would respond better to finding out that they were losing a chunk of a market than they would to being told they're wrong......

[eldargal]

Exactly and that lies at the heart of much of the hostility many men have towards feminism: it means more competition for them. Effectively doubling the pool of competitors. If you failed before you at least lost to another man, now you lose to women and that goes against millennia of patriarchal brainwashing than men need to be dominant.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Exactly and that lies at the heart of much of the hostility many men have towards feminism: it means more competition for them. Effectively doubling the pool of competitors. If you failed before you at least lost to another man, now you lose to women and that goes against millennia of patriarchal brainwashing than men need to be dominant.

I'd just like to point out that male dominated western culture isn't "millennia" old, many post-ancient societies had matriarchies.
It's an almost direct result of the proliferation of "Abrahamic Religions" and their attitudes.
Especially the post-catholic reformation of Christianity.
The west had social equality as late on as the early Viking cultures.
While other cultures also have what we think of as "traditional" views of the male-female relationship they also have culturally significant figures of women who are both potent and important.
However it was the medieval period where, globally-speaking, we see the deterioration of the status of women.
So it's "a millennia at" worst.
I find myself now amused at my pickyness.
Point is, women have not always been downtrodden, once they were equals, so should they be again.
In fact when you look at it that way it somewhat undermines the whole "it's always been that way so why should we change?" argument some idiots use.

[Mr Mystery]

Yep.

I've got quite a Celticy Pagany upbringing, on account Granny Robinson is absolutley head of the household. Offend/cross her at your peril.....Well. She was. Now Mumsie Mystery has taken over given Granny's ill health.... Definite matriarchy.

[eldargal]

Sorry, but no. While there are exceptions there are very few genuinely equal or matriarchal societies in our history. The Vikings weren't, women certainly had more status than in their Christian neighbours societies but they were still not equal. They were the masters of the home, they would servants outside it. Still a very admirable culture in regards to it's treatment of women but let's not overstate it. Pagan Greece and Rome were every bit as patriarchal as the Abrahamic cultures that came later. Egypt was unusually equal, it's contemporaries in the Middle East were not. Women in the various celtoi tribes in Europe also had more rights than we associate with Rome and later Christian periods but it was still absolutely a patriarchal society.

It is not a millennia at worst, that's wishful thinking. The dominance of patriarchal societies stems back at least to the first civilizations (Egypt as mentioned being the exception) in the Old World and similarly the cultures that developed in the New World are similarly patriarchal with some variation in actual treatment of women. I'm not familiar enough with the status of women in Asia but in general they also seem to display the same pattern of patriarchy.

Patriarchy has been the rule since at least 3000 B.C.