I thought that I would take some time to discuss a recent social issue

  

Karen Straughan

Stefan Molyneux

Modern Feminism, and the quest for gender equality


Stefan Molyneux and Karen Straughan discuss why modern feminism has lost its way 

I listened to this conversation the other day. The conversation raised many good points which I feel are left unanswered, possibly deliberately.

I (and the two commentators) admire the feminists of yesteryear. They fought for equal voting rights, and the right to the same professions and education that men have access to. They fought for laws that protected women from sexual harassment. The world is a better place because of those brave women.

The problem now, is that the feminists of today have become extremists. They are totalitarian minded, unrealistic, and dishonest. 
 

I've noticed there's this really weird attitude, that if you somehow criticize them for being dishonest and manipulative, that somehow means that you hate all women, and want women to be second class citizens. 

That attitude proves what I wrote in my blog about Political Correctness, when I talked about people that are so bound to ideology that they can't think outside of it. It also shows that they have very few facts to support their argument.
 

I think that now would be a good time to comment on this video that has gone viral lately:

Little girls dropping f bombs 

Not only is the video highly vulgar, it is dishonest and misleading. I think it's disgusting how lies are used to manipulate people in order to gain power and make money.

The "women earn 23% less than men" statistic has been debunked so many times that it's ridiculous. I don't know what's more absurd: that they still push it, or that people still believe it.

I explained why this is a myth in my other blog about Political Correctness. If you don't want to take my word for it, a quick Google search will help you. There are many, many good Youtube videos on this too.

The reasons are near impossible to refute. What are they going to tell me? 

"A woman having children doesn't affect choice of profession, and seniority she has? "
"That high paying trades like plumbing and electrical, work are female dominated?"
"That women and men are interested in the exact same careers?"
"Employers are so sexist, that they will sacrifice profit?" 
 

Another very misleading and wrong headed argument is the "1 in 5 women will be raped or sexually assaulted by a man 'statistic' ". I knew that didn't sound right, so I did some digging and ...  

SURPRISE!! It was a lie.

A lie, and a very dangerous one..  I will explain why:

When the (questionable) survey was taken, the girls weren't even asked if they were raped. They girls were asked questions like:

"Did you ever have sex while drunk?"
"Did you have sex while on drugs?"
 "Did you have a one night stand and expect it to turn into a relationship?"
" Did you sleep with a stranger and then regret it the next day?"

 All the "yes" responses to these sort of statistics were marked as "rape" in the survey.

 Just another way to manipulate misinformed people.

Points that Molyneux and Straughan made, that I agree with:

 Criticizing feminists for their extreme ideals does not mean that you hate women. 
Disagreeing with feminist methodology doesn't mean that you don't want women to have equal rights and opportunities.

Inventing victims and making things up is not a way to win people on your side. I would be far more eager to help the feminists, if their beliefs were grounded in reality rather than rhetoric.

Like a lot of "utopian" mindsets, there seems to be this drive for an end goal with little desire as to what the consequences are getting there. The ends justify the means, no matter how bad they are.

As I touched on above, there's this bizarre mentality from some people that if you oppose the current mindset of an ideology, you somehow are against everything that it originally stood for. Another example would be: "if you criticize government run schools and the current education system, somehow you don't want children to be educated."

Just as men have advantages that women don't, the reverse is true too. Case in point: A lot of restaurants that I know prefer to hire female bartenders.

Modern feminism seems to be fact/evidence impervious. The only facts that they are interested in are ones that make women appear to be victimized, even if they have to make them up or exaggerate (like the ones stated above).  Again: the whole ideology vs. philosophy thing.

Misogynists aren't born... like any bigot, they are made. Well who makes them? Some say that Hitler hated Jews because his mother died while in the care of a Jewish doctor. Another theory was that they were competing with the Germans/Austrians for jobs, and there was a resentment when the Jews were hired due to being more skilled.

The feminists say that "we're raising our boys to be sexist". Who raises them?! Issues with women have been proven to stem from bad life early experiences with women, particularly mothers. Isn't a young boy's early life dominated by women, especially his mother and early teachers? Women are the majority of elementary school teachers.

 Hitting a child has that effect. Boys that are beaten by their mothers tend to have issues with women. Riddle me this: which ethnic groups tend to hit their children the most? And which ones show the most outright lack of respect for women?

 If there's a disparity, in the statistics, why is it the man's fault either way? Women being paid less overall is "due to patriarchal oppression" but men living overall shorter lives, is their fault too, apparently.

 Why is there this belief that gender is a "social construct" and that the only difference between men and women is their reproductive organs? Science has proven that men and women have different hormones, which affect behavior and attitudes. 
 (I think that this important to emphasize, because conservatives and libertarians are often accused of rejecting science)

Looking out for a girl's safety (telling her to not drink too much, not go home with shady guys, keep an eye on her drink, etc.) is not "victim blaming" it's being smart, and done out of concern. Those warnings don't guarantee safety by any means, but they certainly make a better chance of it. If somebody tells me not to go into a ghetto at 2 AM, its not because they think that I'm helpless and weak, they care for my safety.

The statement above is not by any means condoning sexual predators. There are certainly men that have to learn more respect for women, but that's a separate issue.

Why was Erin Pizzey opening the first "Battered women's' shelter" declared a "victory for  feminism", if it was originally opened to take care of children that were abused by their parents? And why did the feminists get so angry and threaten her, when she talked about how many of these children were abused by their mothers?

Gloria Steinem, of the "Womens' Liberation" was interviewed recently. She was asked if women were oppressed now. She said "Yes, more than ever". How could that be possible after decades of feminism? That could only mean that it made things worse. 

  When people are told that "there's nothing that they can do because they are oppressed", they will work less hard to resolve personal issues, as well as issues within their own group. I will fully admit that I have advantages as a white man, but that doesn't mean everything has been handed to me either. There are certainly people that are better off than I am. These issues are complicated. The advantaged side needs to acknowledge their advantages and help where and when they can, BUT the reality is that the disadvantaged side will also have to work harder to bring themselves up. It's politically incorrect, but true.



Some food for thought. Trying to take a philisophical approach, in an ideologicaly driven world. 

Enjoy! More coming soon!

-STK