Taking a page from race profiteers, fringe feminists like Diana E. H. Russell are saying this Samsung ad portraying a stupid, grunting, sloth-like husband are not sexist because that word only applies to situations that are diminishing to women.
Well professor, what do you propose we call it when the most hostile stereotypes for a gender are used to portray a fictional man? Even if the rest of us took your arbitrary language hijacking seriously and agreed not to use the term sexism - something I will fight to the grave - what is the name for this phenomena?
This is what I hate about the dismissal about men's rights issues the most. It would be one thing if it came from apathy, but the people doing it are not neutral about gender issues; they are heavily invested in them as long as women are the victims. The moment the same forces are turned on men they shut their eyes as a reflex and defend the worst cases of gender stereotypes, hostility and discrimination.
It's because they assume sexism against men and sexism against women can't exist in the same same society, and that even admitting sexism against men exists or causes problems threatens their world view.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Word games
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The comparison with racism is pretty spot on. I have always resisted the hypocritical idea that negative social forces only count if they're against a group that is classified as oppressed.
ReplyDeleteThe same phenomena of myopic dogmatism exists all over the political spectrum. While "conservatives" are often seen as the dogmatists, and some certainly are, a rational and skeptical approach to reality is a sort of philosophical conservatism that results from the use of reason. It's the rejection of dogma. This is what I've begun to notice from ultra liberals and partisan people, they are just as dogmatic in their own worldview, unable to give any ground even if their opposition has the reasonable argument. Admitting that their is sexism towards men would, in their narrow minded reality, ruin everything they've worked for towards woman's rights. They have difficulty seeing the complexity of things and feel totally justified in their viewpoints because they've happened to land on the right sight of some progressive ideals.
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