Feminism, Wimpy Men, and the State

LRC | Brad Edmonds

[Cathryn Crawford]

What do y'all think of his assesment of feminism?

[Tax-chick]

Nobody asked me, but I think it's pretty sharp. On the one hand, I think that women who choose to compete with men on equal terms should have the opportunity.

One the other hand, I think it's disruptive of a societal consensus that the most valuable role for men is "father," and the most valuable role from women is "mother."

On the third hand ... well maybe I haven't quite sorted out my principles to the point of consistency!

[Lorianne]

This article was posted earlier.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Thanks for letting me know.

[Cathryn Crawford]

I think that women and men are different for good reason. Differences are good! Some people don't realize that.

I believe in equal rights for women. But some feminists don't want that - they want men to be trampled. They want MORE rights than men.

[Lorianne]

True, the operative word being "some".

[Cathryn Crawford]

Correct. Despite being for equal rights for women, I don't consider myself to be a feminist.

[Lorianne]

Ooops I'm sorry Cathryn, I can't find the other posting so I must be mistaken. Must have read this on another site. Apologies.

[wimpycat]

You're right...it's "some". But "some people" seem to take what "some" women do and use it as an opportunity for a wholesale misogynistic pity-party. In effect, they take the "victim" role, in exactly the same spirit that the feminazis blame everything bad that happens in the world on men in general.

[Balto_Boy]

Make no mistake, feminism is a big part of our societal degradation.

vs.

Power hungry congressmen of the 1960s helped feminists get their way, using their government power in exchange for guaranteed women’s votes to keep them in jobs where they could pass pay raises for themselves, never be held accountable for the quality of their work, and win high-paying private-sector jobs lobbying their own successors later on.

and

...millions of men who have little respect for women and who take no responsibility for the support or rearing of the children they sire.

So how are men not responsible for the problems blamed on feminism?

What they wanted were guarantees that they could compete for jobs they aren’t as good at as men, and as job applicants be given special status and relaxed standards rather than submit to open competition.

Whether feminists want that or not is beside the point, because men are willing to give that for completely unrelated reasons.

Look men, I don't enjoy male bashing any more than the next guy, but some where along the line men are going to have to face up to the harm they cause themselves and each other and change their ways, or they will all end up going to the unemployment lines or bankrupt, uselessly blaming feminism for the discrimination they inflict on each other. It's as simple as that.

[Cathryn Crawford]

True.

It's really a non-argument. Everybody generalizes everything - see how eloquently I just did?

[Scenic Sounds]

I think that women and men are different for good reason. Differences are good! Some people don't realize that.

Men and women are different and I don't spend a moment worrying about legislators changing that one iota, Cathryn. I think I've posted on that point ad nauseum.

I do think that a lot of the changes that we've seen in this area in the last few decades have flowed more or less inevitably from the development of more effective contraception. And there's been a lot of legal experimentation that has taken place during that period of time, but none of it is irreversible.

[Tax-chick]

I believe in equal rights for women.

So do I, I think. The problem with "equal rights" is that it only recognizes the individual, and her "right" to whatever professions she's qualified for.

So what about our woman who's strong enough to qualify, on equal terms, for army combat units? It's been demonstrated that the presence of a woman among fighting men, no matter how strong she is, is detrimental to the effectiveness of the unit. Shouldn't the woman recognize the larger goal, national security, and exercise her "equal right" in some other way?

[wimpycat]

Love the tagline.

[Cathryn Crawford]

That's true. I never really thought about the whole contraceptive issue before. But, you're right - I can see that it affects the issue an astounding amount.

[Cathryn Crawford]

"Love that tagline."

It was a gift from a friend. ;-)

[Cathryn Crawford]

My statement was generalized deliberately. Far be it from me to try to actually define what "equal rights" actually mean.

I think that if a woman does the same job as a man and does it just as well, she deserves the same pay.

On the other hand, I think that if women get maternity leave, men should get paternity leave.

[Focault's Pendulum]

an innocuous little new law here, another one there, and you’ve been snuck up on

Not to get off topic......but this is a telling statement in regards to our current state of affairs, nationwide.

[Tax-chick]

if women get maternity leave, men should get paternity leave

See, but that assumes that the only really important thing either men or women do is paid labor. That's nonsense, and more to the point, ultimately destructive of a society - talk to some of our immigration-fixated FReepers.

"Equal rights" to be a wage-slave? And leave my kids with an illegal-immigrant sub-minimum-wage-slave? No thanks! I want "unequal rights" to be a mother, because otherwise our society is toast! You definitely want ME, and not the alternatives, raising the next generation of voters!