- Joined
- Jun 11, 2013
- Messages
- 3,925
- Reaction score
- 2,410
To sum the thread up, International Women's Day was almost a week ago and we are all still just a shitty to one another as before. We pick sides, make assumptions about the other, and are, in general, pretty nasty to one another.
The term feminism strikes the same chord in me as someone bringing up racism. As a white, lower-middle class male it all makes me uncomfortable as it challenges the idea of the good person I like to think I am. I will be honest and say that I struggled quite a bit with this over the last year. My knee jerk reaction is to become hyper defensive for the "team" nature decided to put me on. That is the easy thing to do, just convince myself that others are trying to attack me to the point where I can ignore the problem for a little bit long.
I then decided that a better way is to acknowledge that there is gender (Or racial or fill in the blank) inequality, and that I have helped propagate such an inequality through my words and actions, and then with that mindset, go out and try not be a shitty person. Does that automatically fix the problem? No, I still occasionally do things that are sexist, but I become more aware and better equipped to be just a little bit better.
Moral of the Story: People have been pretty terrible to each other throughout history (Especially women for the context of this thread). Acknowledge that you have done it as well. Try not to do it.
The term feminism strikes the same chord in me as someone bringing up racism. As a white, lower-middle class male it all makes me uncomfortable as it challenges the idea of the good person I like to think I am. I will be honest and say that I struggled quite a bit with this over the last year. My knee jerk reaction is to become hyper defensive for the "team" nature decided to put me on. That is the easy thing to do, just convince myself that others are trying to attack me to the point where I can ignore the problem for a little bit long.
I then decided that a better way is to acknowledge that there is gender (Or racial or fill in the blank) inequality, and that I have helped propagate such an inequality through my words and actions, and then with that mindset, go out and try not be a shitty person. Does that automatically fix the problem? No, I still occasionally do things that are sexist, but I become more aware and better equipped to be just a little bit better.
Moral of the Story: People have been pretty terrible to each other throughout history (Especially women for the context of this thread). Acknowledge that you have done it as well. Try not to do it.
