Why we fight
Joss posted this on whedonesque last night, and I found it incredibly moving. This is why our Serenity screening is importaint. Why it means more than hanging out with browncoats for one night. Equality is essential, and Equality Now is part of the good fight
( Read more... )
Sansmercy. Thank you for your bile. It's always fun to read a post that contains a line about compassion being an infinite resource AND the phrase 'screw you twice'.
But it highlights a point I think bears making. One of the things that keeps people from doing anything constructive is the overwhelming feeling that it simply isn't enough. And the withering disdain of people like Sansmercy has a similar effect. It freezes people, makes speaking out or lifting a finger awkward and problematic. I can only assume that Sansmercy has spent a lifetime addressing the problems the rest of us are only just now waking up to. But the fact is, whenever a person decides to do something useful -- no matter how late or how little -- that's something useful.
I freely admit that seeing that vid affected me in a way I haven't been in a long while. And I think what sent it over the edge was the idea of the person recording it. Because murderous rage, while inexcusable, is understandable. Casual recording of murderous rage is much more chilling.
There are so many ramifications of this act, and many of them will be polarizing. Race. Religion. Politics. All the non-gender based violence that needs to be addressed. It's all part of the same quagmire. Can't solve it all. Just stake out your piece. My piece will always begin with that simple question: how did women become so universally undervalued and abused? How was it pulled off, and how exactly was it useful?
Thank you guys for letting me vent, and for your responses. Let the debate continue. Maybe with a little less screwing.
joss | May 20, 16:10 CET
Reply
what exactly that i said are you responding to? what "bile," and what "withering disdain"?
i dont disagree that "whenever a person decides to do something useful... that's something useful." (although an intelligent person would realize that the logical subject and predicate of that statement of the same and thus it is linguistically true by the nature of its wording.)
not admitting that many of the people who read Joss Whedon would do nothing does nothing to get those people to do something! thats all im saying, and hows that for wording?
you're trying to equate something i said to "bile." and if its not the above, its because you disagree with what i said about gender.
im just saying that for every stereotype that women are sensitive and weak there is a stereotype that play too much sports and don't understand feelings. women are advancing in society today not only more than ever before but more than men! just look at the proportion of women in college versus the proportion of men.
and women make lower wages by choice! women choose to pursue the humanities and the arts, instead of engineering and (stereotypically) masculine roles. they also choose to become mothers and homemakers. the mean wage of women is thus lower.
and as for womb envy? i can just tell you that's false and as a guy i should be an authority. i recognize the fact that women do need semen in order to procreate. the power isnt all theirs.
i've written too much, but i become defensive when i think people are trying to make me out to be some critical asshole devoid of compassion. but what i say is true. i just considered it self-evident that the basic fact of what Joss was saying is 100% true. tell me, what did you think i was saying?
Reply
it sounded somewhat similar to yours, and i thought re-posting it would nullify what looked like the start of a debate I thought might be sort of pointless. I actually agree with a lot of the things your saying.
I think the idea of "womb envy" is sort of silly, and the "bile" and "withering disdain" are referring to what this other guy said, which was mostly innapropriate yelling and babbling about men having problems too. However, I do agree that when someone says "you can't fix this" they silence other people, like joss said, "it freezes people, makes speaking out or lifting a finger awkward and problematic."
I agree that men face stereotypes too. The difference is men don't get killed for them. Not in the numbers and passionate fury women do, all over the world. If Dua Khalil's brother had slept with a Sunni woman, he wouldn't have been murdered by his family. It's that simple.
The reason I re-posted joss's essay in the first place wasn't to start arguing about the role of women. It was because it moved me, and I thought it would hopefully inspire other people to get involved with Equality Now.
I'm really glad you actually read it though, enough to get mad at me about it.
Reply
Oh, and for the sake of argument: men are the victims of murder 75% of the time in America. The rate of women victims was the lowest ever in 2004.
And as for destructive stereotypes about men? How about the one where they're supposed to serve in the military? Or the good old "save the women, the children, and the elderly..." Not that I really disagree with that sentiment.
Really, im just pointing out the statistics. But you're right. When women are the victims of the murder, it is by an intimate relation and/or sex-related. When men (in the US) are murdered, it is because of gang- or drug-related incidents. So whatever you want to fight. As long as you're fighting. And those statistics differ in the developing world, I know, and in whichever fundamentalist Islamic state the murder you described occured. But the basic trend is the same.
So, men are idiotic and get themselves killed by engaging in criminal behavior. Women are victimized. Still, though, there are societal causes of both.
Reply
Leave a comment