Where to Place Our Equal Attention on 'Equality'
It seems like we’re hitting a critical point where thought leaders are turning away from the mantra of group/mob/identity-politics. For the past several years, this perversion of politically-correct culture has devolved into funneling unknowing individuals into groups, either as ‘allies’ that are ‘woke’ or labeled as enemies - bigots, alt-right sympathizers, deep web advocates, and so on. This tactic has persisted, particularly on social media where floating heads and celebrity names virtue signal like its their job, mostly to garner support around an issue of easy anger.
A specific manifestation of that is the current mainstream form of feminism - a devolved victim mentality that is predicated on some ideology of societal patriarchy. As with anything that primarily involves anger and resentment, this iteration (which is a far cry from when feminism was focused on equal rights and equal opportunity) has failed to capture true empathy and has thus relied on fear tactics to rally a feeble cause.
I know many people don’t even want to discuss this topic. Any man who seems the least bit critical or vocal of the ineffectual women’s marches, the collateral damage of the Me Too movement, or doubts the rational standing of the wage gap or “pink tax” are immediately see as sexists, bigots, misogynists, male-supremacists, assholes, privileged scum, or a string of other titles that are expected of a civilized and productive debate. /s
That’s why it’s so refreshing when we see true feminists present the state of feminism in all truth and offer actionable, productive suggestions for how women in Western society can feasibly make the strides they seek to achieve. Thus, I’m excited to see a presentation such as the one below -
I particularly embrace this video because it underscores my greatest concern with the general rhetoric around the differences in sexes - the mainstream talk on gender gap actually hurts women. Yea, I said it. I’m not a woman, and I have had no experiences identifying as a female in my entire lifetime, but I believe any logical understanding of statistics and actual performance indicate that regressive and absurd mottos like “Equal Work for Equal Pay” and “Get Rid of the Pink Tax” are akin to designed propaganda and distract real women with real potential from reaching real goals.
I wanted to include a few memorable quotes, then realized that the entire talk is a must-listen. Jess Butcher emphasizes the need to move away from man-hating and the overarching attitude that any single man or system set by man is the foundation of obstacles towards females. She herself being a successful entrepreneur, understands and explains the real hurdles women need to face and overcome to achieve higher wealth and higher standing, and none of them involve men. In fact (and this is proven by any reasonable study), the greatest barrier to success for women in the long-term is actually children, a factor that completely distorts a traditional career path.
It’s so difficult to find substantiated arguments that confidently oppose a mainstream attitude. Especially since TED Talks are such a liberal establishment to begin with, we’ve seen countless “presentations” that are predicated on nothing more than personal experiences. And while those experiences are personally valid, i.e. fat-shaming, glass ceilings, etc., the result of an overblown and overgeneralized conversation leads to nothing but thin empathy, self-censorship, and ultimately disempowerment as the audience is led to believe that society is out to get them.
Let me know what you think.