
Originally Posted by
Ptah
The Problem with Feminism
Before anyone gets the wrong impression, I am not against women. I'm not particularly for them, either. Nor am I for or against men, particularly. For what it is worth here, I am a humanist, if you must put a label on it.
Now, the problem with feminism (I find) is that it falls into all the same ruts as, say, racism or rather anti-racism (insofar as feminism tends to, one way or the other, be a form of anti-sexism), for all the same reasons.
While it may be true that certain cross-sections of humanity (by race, color, creed or whatever) have been mistreated or marginalized by and/or in favor of others, and that this may still be the case at large in the world today... stamping your foot and calling attention to yourself (and/or the race, color or creed you identify with) as a means to remedy the situation is not only the wrong way to do it, but it tends to just deepen the valley of understanding, widen the very same gulf you object to or want to speak to address.
The essence to a solution is not in saying, "I am X, respect my X-ness". It is in saying, "We are all human, let us respect each other on that shared basis".
Yes there may have been and continue to be wrongs wrough against X by those of small minds who choose to discriminate/act upon the superficial. But by responding to and/or challenging them on the terms they began with (X-ism, in your hands now anti-X-ism) is just to deepen the problem. X is not the relevant factor. Humanity is the factor. Discrimination of X is not the problem. People with small minds who wreak discrimination of any such superficial sort are the problem. Don't try to call attention to or plead for X. Call down admonishment, censure and/or punishment upon those who would discriminate X or Y or Z or any other sub-division of humanity, for the faillure of their minds to see past the superficial, and the crimes qua human rights violations that mindset entails.
You cannot fight the superficial with the superficial; you just make it worse, and cloud the real underlying problem, hence perpetually stave off the very solution you seek.
If you actually seek one, that is. Perhaps you're just acting out for attention, claiming your X-ness as a badge to woe-is-me upon the world, for the lack of anything better you can say of/do with yourself. In which case, you are little better if not worse than the people who discriminate against X to begin with, for you operate in the same superficial mindset.
While it may be true that you are male or female, black or white, this religion or that, this nation or that, or whatever. So what. You are a human being. That is what is relevant.
Really, deeper than that... what's relevant in your humanity is that you are a sentient living being, the trait we all (at least potentially) share.
And to be clear, I'm not saying the differences among us are irrelevant in life overall, or are an invalid basis of artistic or whatever other expression. Quite the contrary. We should all accept, embrace, express and flourish through who and what we are, in total (including who we continually and net-effectively choose to be, as such). It's just that when you're trying to remedy small minds (such as those who discriminate), small-minded responses (like anti-discrimination acting out, etc) just make things worse; they perpetuate the attention-at-the-wrong-level of things.
Wake up.
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