#heforshe

Women earn 57% of bachelor’s degrees, 63% of master’s degrees and 53% of doctorates. They constitute the majority of the U.S. workforce and the majority of managers. Single women without kids earn 8% more than single men without children in most cities. Women make up almost half of medical school applicants and nearly 80% of veterinary school enrollees. Maybe we need a #sheforhe hashtage to create some more”equality.”

You observe that “fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating”, and then you quote the dictionary which says that feminism is about equality. All perspectives to a greater or lesser degree must confront a gap between ideology and actual behaviour. That feminists constantly point to the dictionary rather than specific examples of how they actually treat men is a red flag.

For example, in the United States the National Organization for Women opposes shared parenting even though this is exactly the sort of issue one should support for gender equality. To make matters worse, feminists often blame fathers for not fighting hard enough against family court discrimination, ignoring the fact that these fathers usually lack the required financial resources to advocate for themselves. Similar blaming of women for discrimination they face is labelled misogyny.

I’m not saying that all feminists hate men, but a significant minority do (and there are plenty of quotations to prove it). Feminism in general, however, has tolerated misandry.

But more to the point, HeForShe strikes me as rather patriarchal and traditionalist. The primary male role is protecting and providing for women and children, even with his life if necessary. Is the sentiment “HeForShe” really all that different from “women and children first”?

The website states, “HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other [sic] of humanity”.

What it doesn’t say is “both halves of humanity supporting each other”.

Read the rest HERE: http://eldritchedain.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/an-open-letter-to-emma-watson/