So yes, this might not be a funny post. Come to think of it, I'm not actually sure I am a funny person. I mean, I amuse myself, but it seems most of us can do that. So maybe you'll find this post funny?
I want to briefly touch on the issue of feminism. I say brief because you could write books, or extensive Wikipedia articles on the subject. I am grateful for the feminist movement. I don't think there has ever been a time where more rights existed for women. Thanks to the movement I can vote, get a job, run for president or Congress. Are there still a few inequalities? Probably. They talk about the glass ceiling and things like that. We've never had a women president (although I would never vote for someone just because of their race/gender/sexual orientation/etc.) and there are fewer women in leadership positions than men. But there are women in leadership positions and we have had females run for president. It's only a matter of time I think before we actually have a good one to choose.
As to the inconsistencies, I think gender equality should be treated like racial equality. We need to be colorblind. No laws saying you have to hire a certain amount of minorities, no discriminating because of the color of their skin or their origin. People are people. And if should be the same with women and men. If the person involved can do the job, then let them do the job. If they are the better candidate for the job, hire them. If they are not, don't. It rather baffled me that women in the military have to meet a lower fitness standard than men, and they can keep their long hair. If the men's fitness standard is the minimum for men, why should women have it easier? This is the military and you have to be prepared. Is it harder for women to meet that standard? Yes. But should we lower standards so women can join the military and call it equality? I don't think so. Why can't a guy keep his long hair? At this point, the military is just enforcing gender identities as well. Women don't want to be degraded by having the military buzz? Maybe they shouldn't be in the military. Equal is equal.
There is one side of feminism that gets a bad rap, but it's also not what I want to talk about today, so I'll just mention it briefly as well. There is the "guy-hating" version of feminism which seems to think that in order to raise up women, they have to debase guys. Yes, in history guys have often been viewed as stronger and have often been in charge. But if you have to bring others down to lift yourself up, I don't think you are worthy of being lifted up. It's like what Atlas Shrugged says that if you have to destroy your competition to be good, then you don't deserve it. However, if you are so good you wipe out your competition, that is just succeeding. Man hater feminism is what often makes people cringe when they think about feminism and makes me not want to identify as a feminist, even though I am all for women's rights. In a libertarian fashion.
Speaking of libertarianism, I am all for women's rights... as stated above. I don't believe in women getting free contraceptives and total abortion rights. In the first instance, I don't believe in free drugs... for anyone, man or women. That's just another instance of a too-big government. In the second case, I believe the fetus is alive and counts as life... so abortion is murder. I'm not going to touch on the "incest-and-rape" cases because too many people use the extreme to justify death-on-demand. And the birth control pill is nine dollars from Wal-Mart. I don't see why so many people need that somehow included in their health care plan when we spend more on fast food.
But, on to what I actually wanted to talk about today, and that is a strange and different form of feminism. I'd even say it's rather backwards. That is the form in which women are super sexy, provocative, and that gives them power and makes them "strong women." You want an example? Watch "Run the World" by Beyonce. "Girls. We run the world." That's the whole theme. But it's not "We run the world by making smart business decisions, informed policies, and holding government positions, getting into politics, influencing local decisions." It appears to be "we run the world by shaking our chests and sticking our butts in the air."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought feminism was about being equals, not sex objects. But music videos like this and things like Charlie's Angels (I'm thinking the recent ones) have us as only having power over others through our use of sex. At least Charlie's Angels has some firepower when that fails. It's the Marilyn Monroe sort of craze, the idea that we need to be strong women by being sexy women. Why are we going back to this? I'd rather have my mind and be respected by others for being smart or witty or competent... more than being respected for being sexy and having a nice body.
But maybe that's it. Women want men to find them attractive and be at the mercy of the power of their sex. So I think somewhere the message has gotten confused. Some women might decide that they don't want to be respected for their mind but for their beauty. They gained some equality and missed have sex power. But where it really seems messed up is when they use sex power and think that it's them being strong women. Like the guy staring at your butt you're waving around is going to turn around and respect you as an equal for it. Like maybe we have some respect, but it doesn't mean much to us unless we're beautiful too. I don't know how much Marilyn Monroe was respected, but she's currently a girls' icon for how to be desirable and a strong woman. She was self-confident, I'll agree. Self confidence in a girl can be very attractive because so many don't seem to have it... and then feel they have to wear tight clothes and wave things in the air to get attention.
What do we, as women, want? Our quest for equality and not being seen as a sex object seems at odds with our desire for others to find us attractive. How do we resolve this? I don't think it's by seducing men and then claiming we're better than them because we got them to want us. Men are wired differently. Or here's a better question: How do we keep what makes us female while trying to be equal? Can two genders so different exist equally? Can I be respected by others and still be most resoundingly a girl? And I don't mean wearing tight clothes or anything like that. Is this really such a man's world that we cannot be equal women within it? What, exactly, do I want?
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