tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211834503947514288.post6453355459447954911..comments2023-11-03T04:09:32.308-04:00Comments on Adam's Women + Gender Studies blog: some thoughts on patriarchy...Adam Mhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14821541472382709501noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211834503947514288.post-46215807558209159732007-10-08T23:53:00.000-04:002007-10-08T23:53:00.000-04:00Tell your professor she has failed because this re...Tell your professor she has failed because this report consists entirely of abstractions. "Male domination!" Tell your professor that notions of patriarchy only flourish in the hallowed halls of academia and its twisted cousin, the blogosphere. To persuade, you need concrete "for instances." First of all, are you referencing the United States or a third world country? Big difference. <BR/><BR/>Which oppressions are you talking about? Not American law, for certain.<BR/><BR/>Is it the mainstream entertainment media? Well, if you haven't noticed, Hollywood and Madison Avenue treat adult males as incompetent, helpless boobs, and women as smart, well-adjusted but beautiful. I suggest to you that both sexes are subjugated at the hands of Hollywood and Madison Avenue, men probably more than women for the past 20 years or so. <BR/><BR/>Are you referencing the multi-billion dollare beauty and cosmetic industry that dictates that women are supposed to look like models? Now THAT'S opprsseive, but women claim they don't "dress" for men, and men don't notice it in any event. Women dictate that industry. They are competeing with each other, just as men compete with each other in equally strange ways, because, as horrid as it might be for your women's studies professor to hear it, women (and men) have a deeply ingrained biological desire to procreate. No thinking person would disagree with that, and there are literally thousands of studies supporting that statement. It is not a sexist statement -- it affects both men and women. Men are visually aroused by nature; women know this; so women dress the way they do and use make-up the way they do as part of the procreation process. Sound sexist? No intelligent person outside women's studies programs would disagree with that statement. But that statement does not deny women's choice not to do behave in that context, it merely observes what can't be plausibly denied: people have an unspoked desire to procreate. And women need to do it within a smaller span of years than do men, and that mindset undergirds many of these oppressive overt actions. Sound sexist? Scores of studies have shown this to be the case, but you won't hear much of this in women's studies programs. Those programs, unfortunately, have devolved into a cottage industry of bashing one particular gender; since they view every action as the result of male domination (through their brute strength?) of women, and dictating women to be subjugated to their selfish sexual and other desires. The fact is, it is much more complicated than that; there is much more biology involved than the radical feminist lobby wants to acknowledge. To toss generalized phrases like "male domination" and "male privilege' around is anti-intellectual; talk in concrete terms without blaming an existing gender. And please don't give me the crap about the wage gap -- the only real gap when everything is evened out (women taking themselves out of the job market to have a family; the risk entailed in the job) is about four cents because women don't negotate as well as men (even feminists agree with that) -- that's cultrural.<BR/><BR/>Does this mean that women have "equal opporunities" in our society> Not yet. We are getting there. Men don't either, but men haven't noticed -- everyone tells them how privileged you are.<BR/><BR/>Tell your professor also that with the internet, men are learning all about feminism, and about words like misandry. And lots of men are unhappy about it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com