Gender equality

[melsav]

Very good speech by Emma Watson on gender equality, mainly a t women's equality but also aimed at men.
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.co ... ddreaction

[crfriend]

That was a delightful read, Melsav. Thanks for posting it.

I likely picked up the explicit notion from Bob (our Barista Emeritus) that as a skirt-wearing bloke I almost have to be a bit of a feminist simply because I am bucking so many trends and conventions. However, the notion had resonated with me for years beforehand. I detest the wage-gap, hate the way that women get subjugated, and loathe the fact they are all too often relegated to being second-class citizens.

This is not to say that I've agreed with the "women's lib" movement over the years, for I have not; for most of that time I've viewed the notion as women (womyn?) becoming entirely man-like which is not something I much appreciated because I know the shackles that men operate under, even if we do make, on average, 20% more than women for the same work, or get sent off to wars in far-off lands to get ourselves shot or blown up, or have to hide under an increasingly heavy veil of "masculinity" which brings benefit to no-one. What I always hoped for would be that the differences be not reviled and criticized, but celebrated and embraced -- for it's those differences that enable great things to happen. It should not be a matter of competition, but rather cooperation. If it's competition, then the status-quo will almost always win; it's cooperation that tends to bring out the best parts of us.

So, Ms. Watson's speech resonated quite heavily with me, and more power to her for delivering it. I hope that folks -- men and women alike -- listen to it; consider it; feel it. And take it to heart. For, yes, it is up to both sexes to make the situation right. To the man-hating feminists out there: The more you try to be men, the more you hate men for simply being men, the more you relegate yourselves to being second-rate men. There is a better way. Embrace difference.

[pleated]

Witness the response that Emma Watson's very reasonable and positive speech has received...
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/228407/ ... -equality/

[Tor]

I tend to be wary of celebrety opinions, since last I checked they tend to be ordinary people who have a good deal of work to put into their own field, the only difference from us being that they are at the top of a field that puts them in the public eye. If this speech is a reliable indicator Emma Watson is worth listening to on this subject, at least.

So, Ms. Watson's speech resonated quite heavily with me, and more power to her for delivering it. I hope that folks -- men and women alike -- listen to it; consider it; feel it. And take it to heart. For, yes, it is up to both sexes to make the situation right. To the man-hating feminists out there: The more you try to be men, the more you hate men for simply being men, the more you relegate yourselves to being second-rate men. There is a better way. Embrace difference.

Unfortunately, I suspect the man-haters may find that the men they might actually like if they would consider allowing themselves to are also the first to walk away from them, thus reinforcing their lousy opinion of men. Still, a small trickle is enough to start the dam crumbling. Some people will undoubtedly allow this to sway their position because of the source, and Emma Watson is not the only one saying this in one way or another.

Pleated: Nasty. Hopefully there are no such photos around to be stolen. I've seen people say the best way to make sure that never happens to you is to make sure there exist no naked pictures to steal, which in this day and age for a public figure might extend to no crackable cameras pointed at you at such times. I hope she's taken such a step with this much apparent motivation to obtain such images out there. My laptop has a piece of tape (with protective paper over the lens) covering the camera. Perhaps paranoid, but I know enough about computers to know that the "active" light is separately controlled by software, and can be turned off while the camera stream is recorded.

[dillon]

Her comments were fine, but in the broader world it seems women are too often reluctant to alter traditional expectations of men, despite their own benefit from the altering of traditional expectations they bore for the totality of history. Women have, in most of the Western world, the freedom of personal choice; to have a career, a family, or both, and to adopt and adapt any style that pleases them. Can they not allow men the same? Why must the battles for personal choice be refought?