Equality? I think you missed that exit about a mile back

Since I started actively blogging as an anti-feminist, I've seen a lot of feminists criticizing anti-feminism with variations of "How can you be against feminism? Feminism is about equality." We're told that a lot. The dictionary backs them up. But when you look at issues, you quickly see that equality is just not good enough.

For instance, we are told women need affirmative action initiatives in higher education in order to level the playing field against historical, systemic sexism in admissions. It's not enough to accept women, to treat them the same as men, universities and colleges must actively encourage and incentivize women to enroll, to excel, to graduate. The latest data shows that this approach seems to have been successful: women at all levels of higher education have been earning the majority of degrees since 2009. We were already out-graduating men at all levels short of doctorates since 1999, and I saw one article that women started outpacing men around 1982. So that's it, right? The women in education people can pack it in; they won. Set up a smaller watchdog organization to make sure there's no backsliding, and go celebrate.

Instead, in an inspired burst of goal-post shifting, the new complaint is that women are under-represented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields. Meanwhile, all the incentives and scholarships and grants and benefits that were set up to correct the female under-representation in higher education are still going strong, even though women are no longer generally under-represented.

When women surge ahead of men in STEM fields, next year, or five years from now, or ten, or twenty, I wonder what the new goal will be? 

Oppressive patriarchy is oppressive

Feminism is built on the concept that historically, women have been institutionally oppressed by men, and that that oppression continues through today, visible in our male-dominated and male-controlled society (a.k.a., The Patriarchy).

Because any disagreement with a feminist over patriarchy theory usually starts with accusations that the dissenter doesn't understand what patriarchy is and/or is deliberately misdefining patriarchy and/or privilege to support their argument, and generally ends with the feminist ordering the dissenter to come back when they've "educated themselves," let me demonstrate my working understanding of patriarchy as put forth by feminism. We're talking institutional discrimination, not individual; things like executive glass ceilings, the wage gap, and abortion rights. Systemic stuff. It's not a conscious, intentional conspiracy by men to keep the wimmins down, but a system of male domination and female subordination largely benefiting men and limiting and/or disadvantaging women. I invite corrections in the comments.

The elephant in the room is the question of why, if women are so strong, smart, capable, competent, and all around equal to men, then how have they been oppressed by men since the dawn of time? Other groups commonly accepted to face institutional discrimination are overwhelmingly outnumbered. For example, blacks are 13% of the population in the United States. Jews are 2%. Gays are 1.8-10%, depending on who you ask, and transgenders just 0.3%. But women are roughly half the population, and always have been. So either women are so weak and fragile and incompetent that they took literally thousands of years to rise up against their oppressors and even begin to finally demand equality, or, the idea that women are oppressed is a new one that is being applied retroactively.

The New Chivalry, Feminist Style

Let’s get one thing straight. I think women are equal to men. I don’t hold any quaint notions of a “woman’s place,” or believe that men and women are obligated to fulfill prefabricated roles, in the home or anywhere else. And while there are certain physical advantages and brain chemistry differences that, on average, cannot be denied, I believe each man or woman should be judged on his or her own individual merits, and not those of their gender.

Which is why it drives me nuts when well-intentioned people try to protect women from themselves.

Rape is as rape does: Epilogue

In my last post, I discussed the findings "National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey" (NISVS 2010). I compared the figures on rape and sexual violence for men and women over the 12 months previous to the survey, and I promised I'd get back to why I was using the 12-month figures rather than the lifetime figures (which were the figures significantly more emphasized by the CDC in the introduction and press releases and so forth). 

Rape is as rape does, Part 3: "Other Sexual Violence" a.k.a. "Not Rape"

In 2010, the CDC conducted the "National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey" (NISVS 2010) and published the results in 2011.  From the introduction: "This report presents information related to several types of violence that have not previously been measured in a national population based survey, including types of sexual violence other than rape; expressive psychological aggression and coercive control, and control of reproductive or sexual health" [emphasis mine]. Why is this important? Because traditional methods of surveying or studying rape don't include male victims of female rapists (except in the cases of the woman using a surrogate penis to penetrate the man), because that's Not Rape.

Rape is as rape does, Part 2: Lady Rapist 101

So, how does that even work? Men are bigger and stronger than women, on average. Physically, they generally have the upper hand. And, not to put too fine a point on it, but there are certain anatomical realities to penis-in-vagina sex that require the cooperation, and, presumably, the consent of the male. Right?

Rape is as rape does, Part 1: Define "rape"

Thinkprogress.org recently posted a piece discussing the findings of what they call "The Largest International Study On Rape That’s Been Conducted So Far." The study itself was published in The Lancet and was titled, "Prevalence of and factors associated with non-partner rape perpetration: findings from the UN Multi-country Cross-sectional Study on Men and Violence in Asia and the Pacific." Surveys were performed over two years and six countries and 10,000+ men.

But men were only surveyed as perpetrators.

No man was asked if he'd ever been a victim of rape. No woman was asked if she had ever "'forced a [man] who was not your [husband] or [boy]friend at the time to have sex,' or if they had ever 'had sex with a [man] who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether [he] wanted it'” [genders reversed.].

Men getting raped? Absurd, right? Only happens in prison.  Maybe during wartime. And always by other men. Women don't rape. That's the official narrative, right?

Ladies and gentlemen, it's complete bullshit.

Objective?

Every other day, I hear about "objectification," and what I hear is that men, as a group, objectify women, as a group, and that this is wrong and terrible and we need to teach our men better. There's a whole lot of subtext involving "rape culture" and "victim blaming" and so forth, and the general message is that if you don't condemn the "male gaze," you are complicit in the general oppression of women everywhere.

A friend of mine recently shared this link on Facebook, with a hearty endorsement of the contents. I could tell from the title, "Seeing a Woman: A conversation between a father and son" that it was going to annoy me, and I was not disappointed.

Let’s talk cancer

Heart disease kills more women than cancer.  Cancer is the #2 killer of women, all ages, but breast cancer isn't the #1 killer cancer-- lung cancer is (unless you're Hispanic).

Now, looking at a breakdown by ages, one can see that accidental injury is a much bigger killer than cancer from birth through age 34.  35-74 is prone to cancer deaths, but then, post 74, you're looking at heart disease.

You are significantly more likely to die of cancer if you're a man than a woman.  Lung cancer is the number one killer for them, as well, with prostate #2.  Both rates are higher than the #1 and #2 rates for women.  But we don't see guys displaying ribbons everywhere for prostate cancer.

So helping people quit smoking and keep their hearts healthier would keep more people-- male and female-- living longer.  But I guess it's easier to tie pink ribbons around everything and plaster the word "boobies" everywhere in the name of girl power.

Is your dad that stupid?

I admit, I haven’t fully researched it the way this duo did, but I do remember the first time I really noticed the way men were portrayed on TV. It was sometime around 2002 or so, when I was over at my parents’ house and happened to catch part of an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I remember thinking at the time both, “Geez, that poor schmuck can’t catch a break” and “If that were my family, I’d kill myself.”

"Bumbling Dad" has become such a cliche that even TV Tropes has highlighted it. As they note, this archtype is present in just about every family based sitcom for at least the last 30 years, and many before that. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know what I’m talking about: Tim Taylor, Phil Dunphy, Homer Simpson, Hal from "Malcolm in the Middle,"-- the list goes on and on.

Think about it. When was the last time you saw a male character in a sitcom not portrayed as a bumbling buffoon?  From Archie Bunker to Ray Barone, men are shown as stupid, lazy, ignorant, ineffectual dolts who, more often than not, must be saved by their patient, kind, smart, capable wives.  What started off as a wink to the “woman who knows best by letting father think he knows best” as an antidote to the “father knows best” formula of the 1950s has gone far beyond that.

Portray a non-white race in a negative light?  Oh, hello, NAACP.  Women?  Guaranteed press release by NOW.  Jews?  There’s the Anti-Defamation League, right on cue.  But men?  Men are fair game.

Let's end the rampant bias against... Men?

I know! As if there’s one group that does not need protection, it’s men; am I right, ladies? Everywhere you look, men are in charge. Men are Presidents, the majority of judges, and the vast majority of top corporate executives. Women in the United States earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar a male earns. Little boys are encouraged to grow up to be astronauts, engineers, scientists, and doctors, while little girls are told that “math is hard” and encouraged towards nursing, teaching, or full-time housewivery. In 2009, men were responsible for 81.2% of the violent crime in the US and 62.6% of the property crime. And we all know that all rape is committed by men and that domestic abuse is mainly comprised of men beating their wives or girlfriends and often their children or step-children. They just stick it in anything and then skip along on their merry way and leave women to pick up the pieces of their lives, whether it’s trying to put together money for an abortion or track down a deadbeat dad later.

Yes, clearly, it’s a still a man’s world out there.

Until you look closer.