The Case of the Screaming Lambs
Prompted by Deb Dickey's urgings in class on Thursday, I was in a mood to question scientific authority and root out gender bias. So when a rerun of Saturday Night Live reported that women make 73 cents for each dollar a man makes, I went to check it out.
I found the statistics from the National Committee on Pay Equity, a notoriously feminist (the bad kind) organization dedicated to rooting out wage discrepancies. Spending about half an hour perusing their site, using my knowledge of statistics and data reporting, and reading a bit between the lines, I figured something out.
They're full of shit.
The statistic which had me wondering came from a self-report of year round, full time workers. And according to their results, men make more than women. However, this translates to a man working a forty hour week as an electrician compared to a woman working a forty hour week as a cosmotologist. The skill, effort, working conditions, and responsibilities in these two fields are very different! I would be upset if the guy fixing my power was making the same as the girl who cuts my hair. Power heats my apartment, allows me to use a computer, enables me to read in the dark, and microwave late at night. A hair cut allows me to style my hair up the way I like it. Very different fields, they should not be making the same, and it's certainly tainted my view of feminists that they'd parade this statistic as legitimate.
I acknowledge historical injustice in regard to women, races other than white, sexual minorities, and all the other browbeaten groups which have had nothing but misery and despair for the last two hundred years or so. That came out bitterly sarcastic, but coming out of justice I honestly recognize that there have been historical injustices. I remember in middle school, we watched this movie Ruby Bridges about a little girl who was moved into segregated schools in the south. The hatred contained theirin led me to resolve that if I'd lived in the fifties, I would've advocated equal rights for black people. It's one of the reasons why I'm an advocate of sexual minority rights. However, this is one situation where I don't believe two wrongs make a right (those situations do exist in my opinion and often have to do with blackmail or bargaining). I don't think that inflation of injustice is going to remedy it. I think that if anyone else in a position of power had the same reaction I did, they might work to impede the shortsighted and ultimately revulsive agenda of organizations such as the National Committee on Pay Equity. These people who advocate a shadow of the past which probably occured at some point in time, but doesn't really now - they are the ones who are impeding the progress of the United States as a just society. It's not the cloak and dagger society of Ol' Whitey. It's the propaganda-slinging crusaders. And it exponentially upsets me for that reason because I love crusading once in awhile!
The bottom line here, which shouldn't be confused with the final line, is that women are in a pretty good position right now. The culture advocates strong women in a multitude of roles which aren't even publicly pondered by males at large. The legislature supports an anxiety-inducing amount of law which benefits groups such as women and various minorities. Colleges are majorly attended by female students, graduate programs are majorly accepting female applicants (a fear which plays to my own personal insecurities), and the job market is actively seeking out women applicants. Women are the majority right now (51% to the male 49% according to the 2000 census). They're in a good position. It's men who are in a disadvantaged stance right now and if these trends continue, a decade or two down the road and men are going to be the ones hurt by these policies advocating for women. It isn't right. It isn't just.
Watching the Silence of the Lambs earlier tonight, I was caught by Lecter's line "Tell me when the lambs stop screaming, won't you?" It went to the effect that Clarice will never be at rest or peace until justice is done, until people are not harmed for reasons outside themselves. I can relate to her dilemma. Right now, all I can hear is the piercing mews in my mind, impelling me toward justice.
I found the statistics from the National Committee on Pay Equity, a notoriously feminist (the bad kind) organization dedicated to rooting out wage discrepancies. Spending about half an hour perusing their site, using my knowledge of statistics and data reporting, and reading a bit between the lines, I figured something out.
They're full of shit.
The statistic which had me wondering came from a self-report of year round, full time workers. And according to their results, men make more than women. However, this translates to a man working a forty hour week as an electrician compared to a woman working a forty hour week as a cosmotologist. The skill, effort, working conditions, and responsibilities in these two fields are very different! I would be upset if the guy fixing my power was making the same as the girl who cuts my hair. Power heats my apartment, allows me to use a computer, enables me to read in the dark, and microwave late at night. A hair cut allows me to style my hair up the way I like it. Very different fields, they should not be making the same, and it's certainly tainted my view of feminists that they'd parade this statistic as legitimate.
I acknowledge historical injustice in regard to women, races other than white, sexual minorities, and all the other browbeaten groups which have had nothing but misery and despair for the last two hundred years or so. That came out bitterly sarcastic, but coming out of justice I honestly recognize that there have been historical injustices. I remember in middle school, we watched this movie Ruby Bridges about a little girl who was moved into segregated schools in the south. The hatred contained theirin led me to resolve that if I'd lived in the fifties, I would've advocated equal rights for black people. It's one of the reasons why I'm an advocate of sexual minority rights. However, this is one situation where I don't believe two wrongs make a right (those situations do exist in my opinion and often have to do with blackmail or bargaining). I don't think that inflation of injustice is going to remedy it. I think that if anyone else in a position of power had the same reaction I did, they might work to impede the shortsighted and ultimately revulsive agenda of organizations such as the National Committee on Pay Equity. These people who advocate a shadow of the past which probably occured at some point in time, but doesn't really now - they are the ones who are impeding the progress of the United States as a just society. It's not the cloak and dagger society of Ol' Whitey. It's the propaganda-slinging crusaders. And it exponentially upsets me for that reason because I love crusading once in awhile!
The bottom line here, which shouldn't be confused with the final line, is that women are in a pretty good position right now. The culture advocates strong women in a multitude of roles which aren't even publicly pondered by males at large. The legislature supports an anxiety-inducing amount of law which benefits groups such as women and various minorities. Colleges are majorly attended by female students, graduate programs are majorly accepting female applicants (a fear which plays to my own personal insecurities), and the job market is actively seeking out women applicants. Women are the majority right now (51% to the male 49% according to the 2000 census). They're in a good position. It's men who are in a disadvantaged stance right now and if these trends continue, a decade or two down the road and men are going to be the ones hurt by these policies advocating for women. It isn't right. It isn't just.
Watching the Silence of the Lambs earlier tonight, I was caught by Lecter's line "Tell me when the lambs stop screaming, won't you?" It went to the effect that Clarice will never be at rest or peace until justice is done, until people are not harmed for reasons outside themselves. I can relate to her dilemma. Right now, all I can hear is the piercing mews in my mind, impelling me toward justice.