Really, I've ceased to be surprised by how much my favourite concoctions can cost. A venti extra-shot cafe vanilla orange frappucino, double-blended and affogato style please costs a nasty $6 or so. Being a college student who cannot afford rent and food as it is, I decided to go with the much safer cinnamon dolce latte for this evening's musings.
"Give me world politics, gender politics, party politics or small-town politics...I'll take them all over the politics of youth sports."
- Brenda Stonecipher, Starbucks customer
As promised, tonight I have a special bonus quotation for you!
"Poli`tics" is made up of two words, "poli", which is Greek for "many", and "tics, which are blood sucking insects.
-Gore Vidal (also attributed to Dave Barry, Robin Williams, and many others)
While I have to smile and sort of agree with Gore/Dave/Robin, I rather disagree with Brenda. Give me anything but gender politics! Even the words conjure up images of scary femi-nazi lesbians raging against the evils of a patriarchal society designed to repress women. Whatever!
I am fully aware that there are is a great number of women who will never step foot in a school. I am well aware that in some places women are not allowed to show their faces in public. I realize that many girls and women are sold into the sex trade. I do not deny that these things happen. I do, however, deny that in North American society women are not equal to men.
Each sex has traditionally defined roles to play in our society. These are stereotypes, and not evil totalitarian regimes of terror over the daily lives of people. Men are typically perceived to be more left-brained, and value physical strength. Women tend to be seen as nurturing and more social. Why? Because for the most part, that's just how we are. Whether this is a product of biology or society is sort of bumph. I know several women who work in traditionally male jobs - carpentry, doctoring, etc. They do these things as well as any of my male friends do. I also have male friends who are just as qualified to teach or raise a family as any woman I know.
The strengths of each gender stereotype are different, but none is inferior. We need both. And we need men to be the hunter/gatherers; we need women too. We need women to nourish our society, as well as men. We need men to protect women, and women who can protect themselves. We need women to protect men.
Because I do not treat women as inferior, I expect that most people I know do not. I know, it's a horrible habit to assume the world thinks as I do. I'm surprised that with all our modern thinking we haven't solved the world's problems. Perhaps that makes me childish, idealistic and a prime example of all-out denial. But shouldn't we have grasped the concept of human equality a while ago? I'm not a feminist. I am not a masculinist. I'm not, in the strictest terms, a humanist. I'm just a person who wants the world to get along, and is somewhat baffled as to why it doesn't yet.
And heck, here's a third quote:
"You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one"
- John Lennon visionary, icon, poet
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1 comment:
I like that very last quote you have by John Lennon.
However, as a whole I disagree with your post. I do agree that neo-feminists are perhaps the most frightening group of people in the world, but I don't believe men and women are equal in North America.
While women have made great leaps and bounds in the last century, we are s till not paid the same as men in the same job. We are less likely to get ahead in the corporate world than a man, and women are still expected to drop everything and become a stay at home mom the moment we get married and have children.
Women have defiantly come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
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