dannno
06-04-2014, 07:52 PM
It was really tough reading this column by "Starshine", she almost never writes about politics and is usually very funny, playful and insightful. She usually writes about how her parents were hippies and she grew up in the early 80s and became some post-teenie-bopper wife and parent with a penchant for wit, humor and maybe some yoga.
I don't really have any complaints about her solutions, she isn't clamouring for big government or anything. In fact, she doesn't really outline her solutions and is grateful to be able to own property, earn a paycheck and wear pants.
But she has a way with words and I feel like a lot of people who hear her rallying cry for "something" is going to be screaming for more big daddy government to protect them.
Starshine doesn't know, she is just playing right into it .. But clearly the establishment wants women to be scared of men and turn to government for protection.
I left a pretty good comment, I'll post it for you guys at the end of the article.
Are You a Feminist NOW?
It Girls Resist the Label, Worried It Seems Anti-Man
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
By Starshine Roshell
School’s out, and it’s a good thing, too — because across the world, young women are being kidnapped, raped, and shot to death while pursuing an education.
If that sounds shocking — terrific. I’m glad to know we haven’t yet become desensitized to the violence that female students are enduring. But we haven’t become sufficiently enraged about it, either. And that’s equally shocking. Remember when girls and women could go to school and expect to graduate unharmed? Here’s what’s happening now:
• There are 164 Nigerian girls missing after being abducted from their school in April by Islamic terrorists who oppose Western education and have threatened to sell the girls into sexual slavery.
• In the U.S., one in five women is being sexually assaulted during college, and more than 50 universities are being investigated by the Office for Civil Rights for mishandling sexual-assault cases on campus.
• And here in our progressive, civilized town, six people were murdered when an angry young guy embarked on a rampage to “punish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex.” The killer, whose name will never appear in a column of mine, left written rants about waging a “war on women.”
While all of that is happening, this is also taking place: Young women are insisting they’re not feminists. From Katy Perry to Lady Gaga, influential It Girls have been resisting the label, worried that it seems anti-man. The latest: Actress Shailene Woodley, star of The Fault in Our Stars, out this week, recently told Time magazine that she’s not a feminist.
“[B]ecause I love men,” said the 22-year-old, “and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”
I used to feel like her: embarrassed at all the fuss over women’s rights, uncomfortable with the notion that I needed any protection from defensive chicks with chips on their (tee-hee, mannish) shoulders. Their protests made me flush with shame — the way you do when your mom upbraids a waiter for getting your order wrong. Stop! Please! It’s fine! I’m fine! Quit calling so much attention to us!
I never felt slighted for who I was. Not by anyone. For any reason. But the defensive chicks were the reason why.
It was a testament to the work they had already done for women’s rights that I saw no need whatsoever for such work. I took my nearly equal status for granted, the same way kids born after 2000 will fail to see what the big deal is about a black president. Or how the next generation’s children will take their gay parents’ matrimony for granted.
But to say you’re not a feminist today is to be ignorant of the hard-won victories fought on our behalf. So we could vote. Own property. Earn a paycheck. Wear pants, for god’s sake.
In fact, even being ignorant is a slap in the face of the feminists who ensured our right to an education, when girls in colonial America could only attend school if there were seats left after the boys filled the classrooms. And when women weren’t admitted to any college until almost 200 years after Harvard opened its doors. And when women and men didn’t attend U.S. colleges in equal numbers until 1980 — just a few years before Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were born, for those keeping score.
So listen up, sisters. As long as there are men who see us as game pieces in their political, sexual, and psychological battles, as things to be overpowered, won or lost, possessed or destroyed — then, no, you don’t get to treat feminism like an over-the-top accessory that would ruin your otherwise awesome outfit.
Read More:
http://www.independent.com/news/2014/jun/04/are-you-feminist-now/
The comments section turned to male privilege vs female privilege, here is my response:
Male privilege largely exists in the upper echelons of society. Politics, the executive board rooms and such are mostly dominated by men. Men, who are mostly married to women, fwiw. Where does that leave the other 95%+ of men? How do I as a straight male benefit from that if I'm not in the upper echelons?
The last office I worked was 80% women and they pretty much ran the place, which was fine with me, I'm just sayin.
As has been said, there is higher unemployment among men. Women naturally perform better at service sector and many office type jobs. Manufacturing jobs are disappearing.
School is designed for women.
Is School Designed More for Girls Than Boys?
"Girls tend to develop certain skills earlier than boys: for example, the ability to sit still and stay attentive. Our school day, more often than not, demands that students do just that — sit for long periods of time and listen attentively"
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/201...
"Despite the stereotype that boys do better in math and science, girls have made higher grades than boys throughout their school years for nearly a century, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association."
http://www.apa.org/news/press/release...
Many women are with or have the option of being with men who are or would be willing to be the breadwinner or primary income earner so that they can have what is said by some to be a fulfilling job of parenting. But they often sacrifice that job and work for material gain, which is fine, but simply having the option sounds like a privilege to me.
That doesn't mean life is easier for women, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and life is very complex and different for each person. Men aren't better than women and women aren't better than men.
The problem is that I think these type of statistics are used as scare tactics by those who have control and want more control. They want a war on women AND a war on men, they want to divide and conquer. They want to take away our rights and they will throw 100 things at the wall to see what sticks. This is designed to make women terrified of men and clamouring for more daddy government. Keep listening to Obama, tabatha, he will take care of you.
I don't really have any complaints about her solutions, she isn't clamouring for big government or anything. In fact, she doesn't really outline her solutions and is grateful to be able to own property, earn a paycheck and wear pants.
But she has a way with words and I feel like a lot of people who hear her rallying cry for "something" is going to be screaming for more big daddy government to protect them.
Starshine doesn't know, she is just playing right into it .. But clearly the establishment wants women to be scared of men and turn to government for protection.
I left a pretty good comment, I'll post it for you guys at the end of the article.
Are You a Feminist NOW?
It Girls Resist the Label, Worried It Seems Anti-Man
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
By Starshine Roshell
School’s out, and it’s a good thing, too — because across the world, young women are being kidnapped, raped, and shot to death while pursuing an education.
If that sounds shocking — terrific. I’m glad to know we haven’t yet become desensitized to the violence that female students are enduring. But we haven’t become sufficiently enraged about it, either. And that’s equally shocking. Remember when girls and women could go to school and expect to graduate unharmed? Here’s what’s happening now:
• There are 164 Nigerian girls missing after being abducted from their school in April by Islamic terrorists who oppose Western education and have threatened to sell the girls into sexual slavery.
• In the U.S., one in five women is being sexually assaulted during college, and more than 50 universities are being investigated by the Office for Civil Rights for mishandling sexual-assault cases on campus.
• And here in our progressive, civilized town, six people were murdered when an angry young guy embarked on a rampage to “punish all females for the crime of depriving me of sex.” The killer, whose name will never appear in a column of mine, left written rants about waging a “war on women.”
While all of that is happening, this is also taking place: Young women are insisting they’re not feminists. From Katy Perry to Lady Gaga, influential It Girls have been resisting the label, worried that it seems anti-man. The latest: Actress Shailene Woodley, star of The Fault in Our Stars, out this week, recently told Time magazine that she’s not a feminist.
“[B]ecause I love men,” said the 22-year-old, “and I think the idea of ‘raise women to power, take the men away from the power’ is never going to work out because you need balance.”
I used to feel like her: embarrassed at all the fuss over women’s rights, uncomfortable with the notion that I needed any protection from defensive chicks with chips on their (tee-hee, mannish) shoulders. Their protests made me flush with shame — the way you do when your mom upbraids a waiter for getting your order wrong. Stop! Please! It’s fine! I’m fine! Quit calling so much attention to us!
I never felt slighted for who I was. Not by anyone. For any reason. But the defensive chicks were the reason why.
It was a testament to the work they had already done for women’s rights that I saw no need whatsoever for such work. I took my nearly equal status for granted, the same way kids born after 2000 will fail to see what the big deal is about a black president. Or how the next generation’s children will take their gay parents’ matrimony for granted.
But to say you’re not a feminist today is to be ignorant of the hard-won victories fought on our behalf. So we could vote. Own property. Earn a paycheck. Wear pants, for god’s sake.
In fact, even being ignorant is a slap in the face of the feminists who ensured our right to an education, when girls in colonial America could only attend school if there were seats left after the boys filled the classrooms. And when women weren’t admitted to any college until almost 200 years after Harvard opened its doors. And when women and men didn’t attend U.S. colleges in equal numbers until 1980 — just a few years before Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were born, for those keeping score.
So listen up, sisters. As long as there are men who see us as game pieces in their political, sexual, and psychological battles, as things to be overpowered, won or lost, possessed or destroyed — then, no, you don’t get to treat feminism like an over-the-top accessory that would ruin your otherwise awesome outfit.
Read More:
http://www.independent.com/news/2014/jun/04/are-you-feminist-now/
The comments section turned to male privilege vs female privilege, here is my response:
Male privilege largely exists in the upper echelons of society. Politics, the executive board rooms and such are mostly dominated by men. Men, who are mostly married to women, fwiw. Where does that leave the other 95%+ of men? How do I as a straight male benefit from that if I'm not in the upper echelons?
The last office I worked was 80% women and they pretty much ran the place, which was fine with me, I'm just sayin.
As has been said, there is higher unemployment among men. Women naturally perform better at service sector and many office type jobs. Manufacturing jobs are disappearing.
School is designed for women.
Is School Designed More for Girls Than Boys?
"Girls tend to develop certain skills earlier than boys: for example, the ability to sit still and stay attentive. Our school day, more often than not, demands that students do just that — sit for long periods of time and listen attentively"
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/201...
"Despite the stereotype that boys do better in math and science, girls have made higher grades than boys throughout their school years for nearly a century, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association."
http://www.apa.org/news/press/release...
Many women are with or have the option of being with men who are or would be willing to be the breadwinner or primary income earner so that they can have what is said by some to be a fulfilling job of parenting. But they often sacrifice that job and work for material gain, which is fine, but simply having the option sounds like a privilege to me.
That doesn't mean life is easier for women, we all have our strengths and weaknesses and life is very complex and different for each person. Men aren't better than women and women aren't better than men.
The problem is that I think these type of statistics are used as scare tactics by those who have control and want more control. They want a war on women AND a war on men, they want to divide and conquer. They want to take away our rights and they will throw 100 things at the wall to see what sticks. This is designed to make women terrified of men and clamouring for more daddy government. Keep listening to Obama, tabatha, he will take care of you.