As Western culture becomes more ourwardly egalitarian, women are consequently being encouraged to defy stereotypes and express their individuality. This often puts them at odds with conservatives, who tend to support practices that do objectively restrict women. However, these same practices often restrict men just as much, sometimes penalizing them even more--something that even the most vocal liberals almost always fail to acknowledge as well. Despite identifying with egalitarianism (which is all that legitimate feminism is), people who condemn sexism that is imposed on women are often reluctant to condemn sexism imposed on men. In fact, they might actually oppose sexism against males because of how it hurts women, as if the wellbeing of men is an afterthought at best.
For example, the pressure for men in particular to put themselves in physically dangerous situations for the sake of heroism or for the sake of earning social respect is sometimes rightly identified as a discouragement to heroism on the part of women. However, more importantly, this attitude treats men as if they are expendable, as if there is something wrong with them if they do not wish to be in a clowe proximity to danger or violence, and as if the physical suffering of men specifically is a natural and perhaps even good thing--whereas women are even now often treated as if they must be sheltered from physical difficulties so that men can face them instead. This misadrist sexism is hardly opposed even by Christians who identify as staunch egalitarians.
Another obvious example is the asinine idea that men are helpless slaves to mythical hyper-visual and hyper-sexual impulses. This notion has obvious disadvantages for women, as they are then often told they must cover their bodies to some arbitrary extent or else men will sexually objectify or even sexually assault them. There are heinous ramifications for men as well, though. Because men are widely assumed 1) to have strong sexual desires and 2) to have an innate gravitation towards aggression and violence, they are usually treated as if each individual man is a time bomb when it comes to rape and as if they could never be sexually victimized by a woman. Despicable myths associated with the latter are the ideas that women are not strong enough to rape men or that men simply invite any sexual attention from women. Only a fool does not understand the thorough, deep misandry in such a position.
When it comes to dating, there is yet another blatant set of social expectations placed on men that only tend to be criticized for how they hinder women. Men are expected by most people to always initiate, plan, and pay for dating activities. One one hand, this does produce a barrier to women expressing their romantic or sexual interest in individual men (which also contributes to ignorance of the fact that men often want to be romantically/sexually desired and to feel desirable). On the other hand, it also makes many men gratuitously feel insecure and selfish if they do not intentionally, blatantly invest more financial resources into dating relationships than their partners do. It is obvious that it is sexist and harmful to pressure men into such roles, and yet these practices are still largely targeted only for the misogynistic side effects.
The various cultural biases against men, the social limitations imposed on them, and the forms of egregious outward discrimination against them are not Biblically immoral because women are hurt by them as well. They are contrary to Biblical egalitarianism (which is the same as consistent secular egalitarianism) simply because sexism against men is just as much of an abomination as sexism against women is. Any true egalitarian or feminist will not despise sexism against women while tolerating discrimination against men on the level of stereotypes or behavior. Indeed, the mark of true consistency in matters of social justice is an utter refusal to condemn some manifestations of sexism, racism, or classism while allowing others to go unchallenged.
No comments:
Post a Comment