If the title hasn't warded you off already, then kudos to you! There's very few people these days who don't run away from long lines of texts and numbers and what not. Anyway, let's move forward.
To be honest, I know the word,"feminist" carries a negative connotation. I know when people hear it, they imagine a mob of women with boy cuts who want to sentence all men to some sort of public execution. Firstly, we need to understand that feminism does not derive itself from decreasing femininity. After all, us women do like to wear lip gloss and shave our legs. But that's not the point.
The point is, essentially, if men and women are going to do the same things, they need to be treated the same way. Calling my claim,"feminism" isn't going to do it justice. This goes far beyond the realms of society's definition of "feminism." Rather, this is a self-evident truth.
Before you guys start putting me down and vehemently deny this, I need to say this: society ingrains certain prejudices about women that we don't even know exist, yet we still do it! So no, I'm not blaming you for discrimination, and no, I'm not blaming you for seeing women as inferior to men. And from a first glance, you won't notice that you do. Don't worry, I'll explain in a simple manner. However blunt this may be, I pray you won't take offense. Not everyone's going to agree with what I say, and not everyone is going to feel this way. I'm going to explain this without putting in any sort of frivolous emotion which shall make you cry. The point is, these are some of the things that we as a culture and as a society should be aware of so that we can change for the better. So here are the facts:
1) Women leaders are labeled as,"bossy." Male leaders are labeled,"incredibly attractive." There was actually a study at New York University about this. There was a case study about a venture capitalist named Heidi Roizen was presented to students. The class was divided into two halves, both containing both men and women. One half got the study about Heidi, and the other half got the same study except the name "Heidi" was changed to "Howard." Students thought that Heidi and "Howard" were equally competent, but students felt that Howard was the kind of guy they'd want to work for while Heidi was "selfish" and "aggressive."
2) Men are expected to be smart while women are expected to sit there and be pretty. In 2011, Gymboree produced a new line of onesies for babies which said,"Pretty like mommy" and "Smart like daddy." Now we get that Gymboree didn't mean to make the statement of smart boys and pretty girls, but the problem is it only shows how we don't even notice that we hold these prejudices. Chew on this: “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” (Persuasion, Jane Austen)
3) Girls are expected to be more submissive. 57% of men attempt to negotiate their first salaries while 7% of women do. This isn't a matter of competency; it's because women don't ask. Why so? Well, Linda Babcock, professor at Carnegie Mellon University explains this very well. "Reluctance to promote their own interests is not an innate quality or a genetic blind spot in women. As a society, we teach little girls that it's not nice or feminine or appropriate for them to focus on what they want and pursue their self interest. And we don't like it when they do."
That's just three subtle biases that I myself have faced over my life, and it might not apply to you, but it's important to be aware of them so we can stop this subtle discrimination before it happens. Cheers□
To be honest, I know the word,"feminist" carries a negative connotation. I know when people hear it, they imagine a mob of women with boy cuts who want to sentence all men to some sort of public execution. Firstly, we need to understand that feminism does not derive itself from decreasing femininity. After all, us women do like to wear lip gloss and shave our legs. But that's not the point.
The point is, essentially, if men and women are going to do the same things, they need to be treated the same way. Calling my claim,"feminism" isn't going to do it justice. This goes far beyond the realms of society's definition of "feminism." Rather, this is a self-evident truth.
Before you guys start putting me down and vehemently deny this, I need to say this: society ingrains certain prejudices about women that we don't even know exist, yet we still do it! So no, I'm not blaming you for discrimination, and no, I'm not blaming you for seeing women as inferior to men. And from a first glance, you won't notice that you do. Don't worry, I'll explain in a simple manner. However blunt this may be, I pray you won't take offense. Not everyone's going to agree with what I say, and not everyone is going to feel this way. I'm going to explain this without putting in any sort of frivolous emotion which shall make you cry. The point is, these are some of the things that we as a culture and as a society should be aware of so that we can change for the better. So here are the facts:
1) Women leaders are labeled as,"bossy." Male leaders are labeled,"incredibly attractive." There was actually a study at New York University about this. There was a case study about a venture capitalist named Heidi Roizen was presented to students. The class was divided into two halves, both containing both men and women. One half got the study about Heidi, and the other half got the same study except the name "Heidi" was changed to "Howard." Students thought that Heidi and "Howard" were equally competent, but students felt that Howard was the kind of guy they'd want to work for while Heidi was "selfish" and "aggressive."
2) Men are expected to be smart while women are expected to sit there and be pretty. In 2011, Gymboree produced a new line of onesies for babies which said,"Pretty like mommy" and "Smart like daddy." Now we get that Gymboree didn't mean to make the statement of smart boys and pretty girls, but the problem is it only shows how we don't even notice that we hold these prejudices. Chew on this: “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” (Persuasion, Jane Austen)
3) Girls are expected to be more submissive. 57% of men attempt to negotiate their first salaries while 7% of women do. This isn't a matter of competency; it's because women don't ask. Why so? Well, Linda Babcock, professor at Carnegie Mellon University explains this very well. "Reluctance to promote their own interests is not an innate quality or a genetic blind spot in women. As a society, we teach little girls that it's not nice or feminine or appropriate for them to focus on what they want and pursue their self interest. And we don't like it when they do."
That's just three subtle biases that I myself have faced over my life, and it might not apply to you, but it's important to be aware of them so we can stop this subtle discrimination before it happens. Cheers□
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