|
April 20, 2012 - One of the biggest problems I have with the fight for gender equality is the simple fact that men and women are different. This doesn't mean this difference is a bad thing, but turning a blind eye to differences doesn't solve problems of discrimination. In fact, in many instances it makes discrimination worse. The two most obvious examples of this to me are the new healthcare policies, and the ncaa's policies regarding gender equality in college sports (both of which i'll be suggesting solutions for, not that i think these solutions would be popular or even work, but i hate to criticize something without proposing a solution).
Anyway, I'm going to start with a basic example that initially eliminates gender to demonstrate how treating people equally when they're not harbors animosity. Let's say you have two people. Person 1 in six feet tall and weighs 200 pounds. Person 2 is five feet three inches tall and weighs 125 pounds. These people get hungry, so they each get food from some giver of food. Each person gets the same amount of food. Person 1 is obviously much larger so does not find the portion provided satisfactory and grows resentful of person 2 for getting more food than person 2 actually needs. Now person 2 does have options. Person 2 could give the food to person 1, but doing so would destroy the equality of being entitled to the same amount of food, allowing person 1 to feel superior to person 2. Person 2 could also eat more than the amount of food Person 2 needs, but this would only place a greater burden on the food giver who would be determined to give the average difference to both. As person 2 got fatter and person 1 still couldn't get satisfied, person 1 would still continue to feel resentful.
I think the gender roles of person 1 as a male and person 2 as female are probably fairly obvious. In my example men always feel cheated, and women appear as an either less important or selfish. The solution becomes give men what they want, and give women the same thing as the men. Now obviously this creates a lot of excess "food" on the women's side. And in real world situations where men on average pay less than women in health care costs, well, the healthcare provider (which is the government imposing this not the employer has to eat that loss (unfortunately our economy is probably not in a state that can handle this, but it's the only way it works)), likewise in the ncaa if more men want to be involved in athletics than women, then the ncaa should consider developing programs that cater more to programs that interest women (like say actual college courses).
Sexism is a very real and very difficult problem but demanding equality does little to hide inherent differences. It also marginalizes some of the all women programs that do exist by making a point that they don't cross the gender divide.
All I'm trying to say is that roller derby looks awesome, but why is it always all female?
-D
| |
