Usually I don’t get involved or comment on discussions on feminism, or how one gender is treated better or worse than the other, because ultimately when it comes down to it, we are all consumers and individuals being exploited for maximum profitability.
A few days ago, I made the error in judgement and had a read of a few of the pro feminist blogs out there.
What began as the usual reading of Melinda Tankard Reist’s site[1], progressed to reading someone else’s site, and honestly wondering what sort of misguided band wagon these people had jumped on to.
Guy Sigley’s The World Tells Me is one of those sites that comes to mind.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for people having their own sites where they are able to rant about what ticks them off, and we all know I do have a few of them. The thing is, if you are go just rant about one subject ALL the time, at least offer solutions or ideas to create discussions to rectify the problem. Gees, even the site I have dedicated to veganism, AusVegan.com has very few rants about how bad those who consume animal products are. I have even managed to throw the odd tip for vegans on how to survive the coming zombie apocalypse. Which reminds me, December’s not too far away and I need to put a few more out, though I do digress…
A recent post by Mr Sigley[2], got Ms Reist all excited and she just had to repost it on her site[3].
This caused me to have a bit of a look-see around the rest of his site the common theme of a complete misunderstanding of the term misogyny[4], a dislike for Coles and Woolworths, and a very “pro-feminist” stances quickly becomes evident.
Mr Sigley’s post, I’m not ashamed of being a man, but I am ashamed of the things men do lists a few tweets about some of the ways that females have been treated by males.
I’d like to make it clear from the outset, that I am in no way condoning the way that those females were treated, I’m just making the point that females are just as guilty of this sort of behaviour as males.
Males can become victims of sexual assault and harassment by females too. Whilst the statistics on this sort of behaviour are hard to come by, for both obvious and less than obvious reasons, it does happen, none the less.
More than a few years ago now, I was the target of this sort of behaviour myself. I was working for a female dominated and matriarchal organisation, and the incident happened at the dreaded Christmas party. I’m not going to go into the exact details of what happened, suffice to say that during the course of the evening a number of inappropriate comments were made, and conversations attempted with me by two females who effectively controlled the organisation. Lets just say that the night ended with me leaving the party not long after that.
It took me a few years to be able to tell another person about what happened that night, because who’d believe me anyway? Females don’t do that sort of thing, and one of the females wasn’t far off getting married too. Which made it even harder to talk about.
The consequences for me saying no that night were that my career with that organisation effectively disintegrated overnight, and career progression was blocked by one of these females every time.
The point I am trying to make here is that this isn’t a male or female issue. It is a human issue.
The more that one gender is treated different to the other, whether favourably or not, the problem will remain.
If those who claim to be feminists, are indeed in search of equality amongst the sexes, put pressure on the community and politicians to change their attitudes to nudity.
Why is it acceptable for a male to walk down the street without a shirt on, yet a female isn’t?
Either they are both covered up, or both uncovered. You make the choice.
How about standardized fitness tests for both males and females?
For example, the minimum beep test standard for entry to the Queensland Police Service is male under 30: 8/5-7/8 female under 30: 6/9-6/3[5].
Yet they both do the same job and get the same pay.
How is that fair?
References:
1: http://melindatankardreist.com/
2: I’m not ashamed of being a man, but I am ashamed of the things men do
3: One man’s plea to other men: take a stand against sexism
4: mi·sog·y·ny: a hatred of women
Retrieved 08 November 2012
5: beeptest.pdf
Retrieved 08 November 2012
