Another look in our series on marriage equality...
Feckblog brings us a Devil's dictionary sort of definition of feminism:
Feminism is the theory that men and women are equal in every respect--except for those in which women are superior. The trick is to interpret every social indicator as though it demonstrates arbitrary male privilege or genuine female superiority. Fortunately, a little bit of ignorance is all it takes to accomplish this feat.
But the article Feckless points to is even more interesting:
In fact, this is precisely what the studies show, when looked at carefully. It has been said that the gender wage gap is not a measure of discrimination; it is a measure of ignorance. The more you know about the determinants of income, the smaller the gender wage gap becomes, to the point of insignificance.
Controlling only for crude time factors--number of hours worked per week, weeks worked per year, and years worked in a career--will account for all but about five or ten percentage points in the gender wage gap in most occupations. Willingness to travel, and to relocate for a promotion, are also important. So is field of work, educational qualifications, and--importantly--risk of injury or death. About 95 per cent of occupational deaths in Canada occur to men; even if that isn’t an employment opportunity you want to see equalized, at least concede men a risk premium for the kind of work that makes that statistic a reality.
Interesting, interesting....hi!
ReplyDeleteFeminism is the theory that men and women are equal in every respect--except for those in which women are superior.
ReplyDeleteNice strawman, but that's not what feminism is.
Hey Feckless, thanks for stopping by. Just a quick question, ever read the Masculinisme blog?
ReplyDeletePF:
The reference to Devil's Dictionary is to a work by Ambrose Bierce. As the wikipedia states, it is full of cynical definitions of things as they really function, rather then as they wish to appear to be. He derived his inspiration from an entry in Noah Webster's dictionary:
"Kings are sometimes called God's vicegerents. It is to be wished they would always deserve the appellation"
In that vein, if Feckless's definition is not what feminism wants to be, then they need to change their actions accordingly. A good example of such a recommendation is the article Feckless linked to.
I have to check this blog out...what is the link?
ReplyDeletehttp://masculinisme.blog-city.com/
ReplyDeleteHalf of his posts are in French, which I can follow well enough. But as I have it you are from Germany, so you probably don't have a problem with it.
By the way I noticed you had a post this weed on same sex marriage (repeating Glen Sack's position) which I intend to reply to. But to be honest, probably the best way to answer your post is to point to noted Father's rights advocate David Blankenhorn who wrote one of the best most considerate works on the subject in "The Future of Marriage".
A blurb on it can be found here...
http://www.americanvalues.org/html/FUMA.htm
Feminists, lesbian feminists in particular, are working hard to create a status of parenthood called "de-facto parenting" where anyone who gives care to a child has the same status as the child's legally recognized parents. It is essentially a status which helps them replace fathers.
Glenn Sacks, if I remember right, actually hopes that same-sex marriage will give better rights to fathers if we have families constituted of pure patriarchy. However, with the establishment of de-facto parenting, that argument looks to be entirely misguided. For where can one protect what it means to be a man, if its meaningless to be a father. And how can we defend that it means to be a father if the state says two mothers are the exact same as a mother and father.
Looking at just the disgruntled voices of men and women in divorce, how both their genders are oppressed by the other and there is seemingly no way to protect all of their rights in divorce. Its why my battle for men's and women's rights is primarily a battle of marriage equality -- the quality of each gender's recognition and responsibility of the other's rights in marriage.