There, I said it.
No I don't go around burning bras and my friends don't call me butch, bitch or sex fiend. What I mean by this is that I believe that women continue to be treated unfairly. At my own university female teachers make about 20% less than male teachers. I hate it when people say,"But males are the bread winners of the family, they have to make more." Yeah, tell that to the English teacher who is divorced and has 4 kids to take care of. Why is it that men are so afraid of having a female in power? No really, I would like to see the reaction on peoples faces if a woman was appointed as the president's military adviser. Could you imagine the sexist remarks that would come if a woman was actually elected as president? We've seen it with Sara Palin running. I mean, come on, it's easy enough to poke fun at her for saying stupid things, she's a politician. There is no reason for sexist remarks.
We Americans take pride for being ahead of regions like the Middle East and Asia but we are far behind most of Europe which means that we should be open to progression with this issue. Too many people here say that we have achieved equality but most of those people have yet to experience the effects from the past that linger.
When a couple gets married they must look towards the feelings of their mate and find out how they want to live their life. Some women are fine with staying at home, taking care of the kids and making dinner for their husband so he can relax from a hard days work. When I got married I asked Mandi what role she would like to have in the relationship. It just goes to show how much power society has given me as a man in a relationship, I had to ask. Eventually we found a way to divide things out evenly but it still took a few years to find out what we both wanted. She still hasn't made a decision on whether or not she wants to have kids biologically or adopt but I will leave that up to her since it is her body. I can respect that. After all, I've never heard a man say, "I want to go through labor," but I'm sure there are a few crazies out there.
It just sucks when society says, "A boy is this," and "A girl does that." I would suggest to everyone to really look at their relationship and see who does what and how much work goes into what they are doing. It's always difficult to keep things even but everyone should always be working on it and avoid being stuck in routine to where they don't notice it. Yes, this is my blog and this is how I feel today because of the love I have for my lovely wife, Mandi :)
I don't think I became fully aware of how much of a feminist I was til I had a daughter. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I'm a stay at home mom but that's what I wanted to do. I had my sons doing housework like my daughter and she also does the yard work. As for my husband and I.....he earns the money (and I spend it. Ha ha!) but I'm the one who usually does the home and yard repairs. He doesn't have an interest in it and I think it's cool.
ReplyDeleteLOL. I just realized that I posted this on Nerdy Bot instead of my own blog. Oh well. I guess it's good to get the word out. Sheeesh!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jeff. I think there are serious problems with how America views themselves and this is obviously brought down on issues of sex. I think the biggest problem is that of ignorance. Ignorance is raging in more ways then that of women's rights and there needs to be some serious change before we are ever caught up to how a lot of the world has already progressed to. Women's rights is a major one and it needs to be addressed and brought to the attention of more people. I will admit, it is getting better, but there needs to be more of a push for equality.
ReplyDeleteThis is a quote from Gandhi in regards to non-violent resistance, but I think it fits here, "I learnt the lesson on nonviolence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will on the one hand, and her quiet submission to the suffering my stupidity involved on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me of my stupidity in thinking that I was born to rule over her."
ReplyDeleteAnd in regards to Ghandi, he could have learned a lesson too about racism towards black. I think in the end we all need to be humbled and realize that we all have our biases. It's not wrong to have a problem but we should always be trying to better ourselves.
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