3.19.2009

priceless

are you kidding me kathleen?

"boys in this country are in far graver danger than girls in nearly every measurable way."

"boys won't be equal to girls if we don't focus some of our resources on their needs and stop advancing the false notion that girls are a special class of people deserving special treatment."

"this figure [ the wage gap ] is derived by comparing the average median wage of all full-time working men and women without considering multiple variables, including the choices women and men make. "

"Boys, meanwhile, are the ones dropping out of school or being expelled. They're the ones failing, abusing drugs and committing suicide."

ok....for the last time (yeah right): It isn't "special" to be free from discrimination. (many MANY thanks to Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP for this recent quotation).

also- women's "choices" to stay home, bear children, leave the workforce notwithstanding, why isn't ms. parker pointing fingers at the men who have "chosen" to fail out of school, abuse drugs and commit suicide? but, you might say, it's culture/society/family/barney the dinosaur that is contributing to the male drop out rate, drug abuse statistics, and suicide rate.

well, from where i stand, it is then ALSO true that the "choices" that women make to stay home, leave careers, etc. are not purely made out of free-wheelin' choice. they face influence from society, family, tradition (i.e. the patriarchy) to make those "choices" as well. and when i say influence, i mean: the kind of influence that burns old women accused of witchcraft at the stake in the 17th century, and the kind of influence that calls female genital mutilation "normal" in communities sudan and ethiopia, and the kind of influence that leads to 75% of women reporting behaviors consistent with eating disorders last year.

which means that indeed, women do NOT enjoy equality in the workplace, or in any other place for that matter. frankly, when men and boys are being raped at the rate at which women are (or, conversely, when women are being raped as INFREQUENTLY as men are), i'll concede that maybe then boys are in as much danger as girls "in every measurable way". by that time, we'll also be reading headlines about planes crash landing in the hudson due to hitting a flock of pigs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

wtf kathleen! so mad i'm stuttering. non-wage compensations like health insurance???? yes, that's *definitely* something that's WAY more important to women than to men. if we were like the rest of the civilized world and had national coverage for everyone, THEN what would her excuse be?

*pffft*

Carolynn said...

exactly! so many excuses for NOT admitting that sexism exists. almost as insidious as the -ism itself!