Stepping onto my soapbox...
I fully appreciate and support the idea that women be empowered. I never want a women hurt simply because she's a woman. The ideas I take issue with are that women feel like they have to push everyone else down in order to give themselves the power they think they deserve. That isn't empowerment, that's all kinds of bad things, like sexism, suppression, and prejudice. Women don't have to knock other people down to prove our power. We are already powerful.
The initial feminist movement wasn't about making women better, or higher, than our male counterparts, it was about making us equal, giving us choices. I believe that initial movement was right! And in large part, I believe it was successful. Women have choices to be whatever we want to be: doctors, lawyers, underwater basket weavers, explorers, exhibitionists, or homemakers. We have the power to go out into the world and create for ourselves what we want to be. That, my friends, is empowerment. Being empowered has nothing to do with how powerful anyone else is.
So men? Yeah, they're different from women. Just like black skin is different from white. But those differences don't make one side better than the other. Differences just make us different, they do NOT make one better than the other. We can be different and still be equal. Everyone, every human, should have the power to make of themselves whatever they want to be. To be empowered.
But my choice to be an author in no way should diminish the right of someone else to choose what they want to be. If a man wants to also be a stay-at-home parent who writes, they should not get any backlash for that choice. If I wanted to become a psychologist, I should receive no backlash about that because of my gender, my race, or anything else that I have no control over. That means that those men who imposed their wills on women were wrong, but so also are the women who are making it impossible for decent men to be what they want to be. Choices mean empowerment.
That is why I am so annoyed with the direction celebrity and the media have taken things over the last few months. They've vilified all men because there are a few bad eggs in high profile places. In fact, the one or two men who have spoken up to say that not all men are bad have been blasted right off the internet. That is called sexism. By placing women above men simply because we are women is sexism. And it's wrong. It's hurtful. It isn't helping ANYONE. It shouldn't happen.
Let's begin by making everyone equal, not making a wrong even wronger by perpetuating it.
Let's return to that picture I posted at the beginning to point out a matter of irony I can't let pass by. These women are standing together by all wearing black, to support women. Right? Well, let's think about this further. They have lambasted men for objectifying and harassing women, but look at the dresses they're wearing! How can a person, man or woman, look at someone wearing a dress that shows so much skin in such a provocative manner and NOT objectify that woman? They're saying one thing with their mouths and completely negating it with their actions. Just saying. Let's be consistent people!
Thank you. I'm stepping off my soapbox now.
