IcyMonkey wrote:
Has the work of the original feminists already been accomplished? Is feminism still a worthwhile cause to support?
Which original feminists? The ones of the 1970s, 1950s, 1930s, 1890s, 1750s, or maybe the 400 BCE feminists? (Viz. Aristophanes'
Lysistrata, albeit written by a man -- nevertheless, still a significant document.)
Feminism, to me, is the insistence upon the equality of women in all social and societal venues. In my country, we have had precisely one woman as prime minister; unfortunately for the country and for women, she was lousy at the job. In IcyMonkey's country, they have had no women as heads of national government. In both countries, the elected organs of power are at least two-thirds male. Similar or even more extreme states of affairs exist within the commercial and financial sectors of society.
I do not advocate a quota of women or men; such is patently unjust and obviously foolish. Where feminism is needed is to make people of both sexes realize that sex is not a measure of ability. The idea of a woman as (for example) President of the United States of America or Chief Executive Officer of General Motors should not be
remarkable in any fashion. Feminism is useful and meaningful until the time that half the candidates for nomination to such positions are female -- and only because they are considered equally competent as their male counterparts by the people making those nominations.
IcyMonkey wrote:
Thus the real question becomes, "Does patriarchy still exist in any form, and if so would a gender-equal society be desirable?" For now, I'm going to assume that the answer to the latter question is yes, although anyone can challenge me on this if they disagree. As for the former question: yes, I believe it does. You can't get rid of something that has been an aspect of our society for thousands of years simply by changing a few laws over the course of a decade or two.
Patriarchy exists, because people still make the assumption that males are better at powerful jobs than females are. People still make the assumption that females are incompetent in mathematics, too. I take both assumptions personally, whether they are expressed by a male or a female. Girls who think that they can't do math because they don't have penises annoy me no end.
A "gender-equal society" would be impossible in an English-speaking country; the English language distinguishes masculine from feminine ...
Oh, wait, you meant "a society in which the distribution of consistent functions is not differentiated according to sex". That could happen, though. If we tried hard enough, maybe, someday. The striving, itself, is worth while, don't you think?
(I am being pedantic: the word "gender" is properly applied only to other words, not to people or societal roles. Incorrect uses of the word "gender" are euphemisms for the correct word, which is "sex". Euphemisms hinder communication, and are therefore bad -- though I do admit that your phrase was shorter and easier to say than mine was, hmmm.)
madadric wrote:
Why are a bunch of guys discussing this? we have no idea.
Is femininsim useless? to me it is, 'cause i'm a guy. Just like masculinisim is useless to females.
A bunch of guys are discussing it because contrary to the statement in your second paragraph, it isn't useless to you. I don't know what "masculinism" entails, but men want women to respect them and like them, right? Feminists are telling you, "this is how to get us to respect you and like you." You are muttering to each other through your beards about how much that is worth to you.
madadric wrote:
What we need is some femmes saying whether feminisim has doen anything new for them in the past few years.
Yes. The U. S. Supreme Court just overturned a ban against so-called partial-birth abortions, for example. A woman's right to choose what to do with her own body is very much a feminist issue, whether or not you agree with the feminist point of view.
H-Kat wrote:
Shave. Shave, and you can have whatever rights you want. I have to fucking shave. You have to fucking shave.
Does the use of depilatory cream count? And must people of Asian or New World aboriginal ancestry, who naturally have less hair than hirsute Europeans and Africans, thereby be marginalized?
Tamayo