Feminism, is it really something the world needs? Are women inferior to men as they say? This is a discussion for arguments and opinions of equality.

4 opinions, 0 replies
Add your opinion:
Preview:
(mouse over or touch to update)
Add your opinion
100
3 votes
Dec 28, 2015

My problem with feminism in its most well-known (vocal/agressive) form is that I don't feel inspired by it (except for the Spice Girls, who were more focused on individual strengths within a feministic framework instead of seeing gender as the sole condition for comradery <- yes I know it is a pop formula and that doesn't make it less a source of inspiration), rather judged. Another problem I have with feminism is that a common way of speaking out for women goes at the cost of men. Like: "well, you're not so great as well, allow me to elaborate", or even attempt to convince them that "their" existence is otiose/"unnecessary". Feels more like kicking back than climbing up. Also even/especially among women there is a pecking order/inequality, where the loudest voice is able to dominate - yet hardly in the right. Should you speak out against it, social ostracism awaits through gossip, feigning, faking, lying, manipulating, backstabbing and group think. Forget glass ceilings; something should be done about pink walls.

subscribe
100
3 votes
Dec 29, 2015

Feminism is the best liberatory framework we presently have to achieve justice in the field of gender.

Like any movement, feminism as actually realized rather than imagined has several flaws. Feminists often struggle to deal with issues of race, class and political oppression, even as they try (with real efforts for improvement) to be more intersectional. Feminism can sometimes appear misandrist, and individual feminists can be misled by anger (however understandable) or tactical miscalculation into saying things that appear to attack men.

Men and women are different on average. But the idea that this difference should translate into better treatment for one or the other group, more power or more remuneration or what not, simply does not follow from the mere fact of the difference. Perhaps men are intrinsically slightly more competitive and women intrinsically slightly more cooperative. But both are valuable traits in the right situations, so a good balance throughout society of these two traits would be ideal.

And far more differences between men and women are manufactured by patriarchal mythology and institutions. Consider that, until very recently, women had shorter lifespans than men, largely due to being around the hearth so much and dealing with serious burns and other health issues from a very limited domestic life. Genes didn't change, but society created more options and opportunities. That has made it so that, today, the difference goes the other way. An approach that tries to find "intrinsic" differences, as if that were a meaningful idea, would have said some time ago that women must just not be as hearty. What so often looks like biology is actually sociology in disguise.

We should be striving to keep expanding those options and opportunities. There is, at present, no framework to do so aside from feminism, and the barrier to those options and opportunities in the arena of gender and kinship is patriarchy.

subscribe
100
1 vote
Dec 28, 2015

The feminist community has grown immensely the last few years, but is it really necessary? Is there so much inequality in this world? Enough to make millions of women outraged about us "white privileged men"? I think not! Statistics has proven that there is as much equality between the different genders as we can get, which is somewhat 50/50.

subscribe
100
1 vote
Nov 8, 2016

As I've stated before men and women can never be truly equal, we are different. But you can't say one if inferior to the other, it's like comparing a truck to a car, they can do many of the same jobs, move people or cargo from point a to b. How they do that may be different, in a car you might have to fold down seat to make some cargo fit, while in a truck it gets tossed in the back.

Same with men and women, in general we can do the same jobs, we might have to do things a little different.

subscribe
Add your opinion
Challenge someone to answer this topic:
Invite an OpiWiki user:
OR
Invite your friend via email:
OR
Share it: