Mood: revolutionary
Listening to: 'Forever & Always' by Taylor Swift
Hungry for: milk
I used to dismiss masculism, but now, I think, I am beginning to take it seriously. I accept that there are some things that women get a bit more leeway on then men - and of course, this needs immediate attention on a global scale. Human rights, for men and women, should always be moving forward.
One thing all of us, feminist or masculist, man or woman, must refrain from, is chauvinism. There is not one race or sex that is better than the others. The world will be a better place when every man, woman and child accepts that.
But you must agree, that men, compared to women, have had it quite easy, all in all. There are the biological things that no-one can change, like pregnancy and childbirth and the endless monthly hormone rollercoaster, but then there are the things that we can change - the atrocious defiance of the most basic human rights to women in third-world countries, ruled by ignorant thugs who seek to suppress those who are blamed for what they are born to be, and the sexual discrimination that exists today even in modern-day, civilized society. Women's rights to education is still a long way behind the rights of education granted to men, with tertiary education only available to women in the 1900's and even now still denied to a significant percentage of the female population. Masculists cannot dismiss or criticise the feminist cause, and feminists cannot dismiss or criticise the masculist cause. We should work together, to secure equal rights for all, forever.
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4 comments:
It's true that women have special burdens, but so do men. For example, nearly 100% of people sent to die in war are male. This has been true for nearly all of human history.
You can also look at every single level of the male-female relationship and see that the male is taking nearly all of the risk:
The man asks the woman on a date. He drives. He pays. He asks her to marry him. He buys the diamond ring. When they're married, he pays for the house.
And on the flipside, she retains all of the rights: in the event of divorce, she retains the house. She retains rights to the children. She receives alimony. She receives child-support. Even in cases where the mother is a drug-addict, she retains rights to the children. It is nearly impossible for the most capable father to reverse this.
The same goes for reproductive rights, which men to not have. A man has no say in whether or not his child will be aborted or not - adopted or not, even though it is just as much his offspring as it is hers. Women have many rights that men do not have. Men have no rights that women do not have, although they do have responsibilities women do not, such as going to war, child-support, etc.
There is a significant number of women who have died in wars or in the aftermaths and effects of wars, and while the male female ratio may be off-balance, women were disallowed from enlisting armies for many reasons - some sexist and some not - and even today it is a social taboo. So there are reasons. There are also female POAs and 'comfort women'.
There are also risks for women in every single level of the male-female relationship. A woman is at a significantly greater risk at every stage of rape and physical, emotional, mental, verbal and sexual abuse. It is statistically proven that whilst most men believe that their partners should be faithful, they believe it is 'okay' for men to 'cheat' and have extramaritial affairs.
Also, in modern times, women do ask out, propose, and buy houses or split the price. And we do get rejected. A lot.
I don't know where you live, but here all divorces must follow terms set up by a pre-nup, or everything is split 50-50 - including the house, which is usually sold. Whilst I agree with you on the child support thing, why should men walk away from a wife and child and not give a penny? And also where I live, courts determine who is most capable of providing for children.
I think reproductive rights is a matter of debate. Should a man force a woman to abort a child just because it is his as well as hers? Should a man be able to stop an adoption and then walk away? I don't know.
But I'm not going to have an endless argument of 'who gets a better treatment'. I respect there are gaps in the law - for both men and women. But you can't expect me to sympathize with every male rights shortcoming. I can't really empathize, you know. I think it's time that men and women put aside this argument and work towards a common goal: equality.
I support your goal of equality for men and women. I love and respect women and think they still need to be better understood and better treated. The fact is, however, that men do not have many of the rights that women do. This is very plain to see when the rights are actually considered:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men's_rights
If equality is a goal, these have to be addressed, don't they?
I also think you should re-examine your assumption that women are at "significantly higher risk" of physical, emotional, mental, and verbal abuse than men:
View pages 23-27 of this study:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/12729973/Sexual-Conflict-Chapter-6-of-Emotion-Seduction-and-Intimacy
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