During a dinner discussion with my roommate we discussed sexism and how it has reversed. We discussed the change from the days of female oppression, to the empowering of women and now the almost favouritism of women and oppression of men. Affirmative action was introduced to balance and equalize the working environment for women and minorities. Scholarships that are exclusive to women and minorities were introduced to encourage them to attend post-secondary institutions. However now, the playing fields are closer to equal, and yet these advantages still exist for women and minorities. This is unfair. If there is an exclusive female only scholarship, there should be an equivalent male only scholarship. The best candidate for the job/scholarship/opportunity should be the one who receives it. We are creating a new type of oppression/discrimination now one that is towards males and Caucasians. This can be seen in many aspects of modern life, for example those shirts with the phrase "boys are stupid, throw rocks at them," imagine if the shirt was actually "girls are stupid, throw rocks at them," all hell would break loose. There would be such an uproar at the thought that girls are stupid, but it is ok to consider boys such. This is a trend appearing throughout the media, that the woman is the one that knows how to take care of everything.
Just one note that I think I should mention, things appear to be evening out in the work place, but women still make only about 60-70% of the income that men do at the same jobs, things are not quite equal just yet.
The original goal was to reach equality, not tip the scales from one end to the other. We are creating another type of inequality. There should be equal opportunity all around and the most qualified/deserving (depending on circumstance) should be given the opportunity, but I realise that bias plays a significant role in this and makes it quite difficult to achieve this for certain. I can be an idealist sometimes, can't I?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Yes! I fully agree with what you are saying... the person that came up with the t-shirt that says "boys are stupid... throw rocks at them" should be fired! Might I mention that this is for a well known company called Bluenotes.. not sure if you have this outside of canada or not. How DARE they get away with something so vile and outrageous. Regardless of what has happened to women in the past, men have realized their mistake, and have starteed a whole new generation of thought.. why must we continue punishing them?? And yes, I understand there are some men out there that still think that women are inferior... but in my belief, there are far more women who believe that men are inferior, and act out in much the same way that men used to. By demanding that we have more opportunities then men is pushing too far beyond the median. That crap about employers having to hire a certain number of women by law... does that not make womankind feel as though we are taking charity handouts? However, i do think that if there is a gross imbalance of women vs. men in the workplace then the hiring process should be examined... But it just doesnt feel right. Maybe I'm lucky, but from my personal experience, I have never once been told I can't do what I want to do because of my gender. However, I have heard on numerous occasions, someone telling a man he can't do what he wants to do.. because it's "too sissy" or because it's not socially acceptable to take on opposing "gender roles". That was a big ramble, but it gets me really worked up. If we want to stop discrimination against women, then we need to stop discrimation against men as well. Men have oppressed and have learned from their mistake. Men of today are not the same people as those who have oppressed in the past, why should they suffer??
ok.. I did some research, and the company that made the "boys are stupid... throw rocks at them" t-shirt is David and Goliath
you can access their website at http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/
check out all of their t-shirts and clothing articles. I'd say a good 98% of them are offensive to men... someone should write an angry letter!!
While I agree that at times the bias that was meant to lead to a more equal playing field is starting to tip too far to the opposite end, I still think it's possible to create t-shirts that say "Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them" and take it with a sense of humour. It's evident that the t-shirts are produced to remind people of the good ol' days when girls had cuties and boys were smelly. It's all in good fun :)
Another point of note is that no matter what equality we achieve in the working world, men will always have the upper hand. We are simply physically more sturdy, do not have the added responsibility of child-bearing (that is a factor that influences women in the workplace), and when it comes down to it, we will always have the greater means with which to abuse the other sex. I would think that puts the onus upon us to even the playing field and eliminate abuse. The power to eliminate abuse will always lie with men, and not women.
That also means we can take insults like "boys are smelly" and laugh about it. :)
these are good observations. i agree with the post. i couldnt comment earlier on account of being brain-dead. since i'm not much better right now, i'll shut up.
sorry, i forgot to mention that was me.
-inna
Post a Comment