Ask A Genius 203 – All Equal in Creation, Men
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/19
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Rick Rosner: That the Constitution says, “All men are created equal…” and should include women too, not just men. The basic idea is that this is the basic idea for the fabric of American liberty. So, to make feminism unpalatable to a lot of people, you must hang a bunch of other stuff on it to make it seem not right.
That it is whiny. That women are already in a privileged position in society. That if women just knew their place, then they would be better taken care of than even men who must be the risk-takers. Then even more modern counter-arguments, that feminism is anti-beauty.
That they see it as part of a movement to being pro-abortion or is tied to pro-abortion arguments and movements; or the idea that – you see this with minority movements too, that all the important battles have been won and that we should be cool because we live in a post-sexist and post-racist society.
A lot of people have dumb ideas about what feminism is. It makes them decide that it is not for them anymore and doesn’t need to be respected when people espouse feminist ideas. So, as I said, I have a wife and daughter, I like them to live in a world.
Even if I didn’t have a wife and a daughter, I would like women to live in a society, where there is basic fairness among genders – and I look forward to the science fictioney future in which gender becomes less important as we gain more control over our identities and our biology.
And our choices about who to be and how to be. So, I have been active on twitter for a little more than 3 years. Social media and particularly Twitter is a good place, I think, to learn about feminism because some of the angriest and funniest voices on Twitter are feminist voices.
Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian who might be one of the most vehement pointer-outers of guy assholes on Twitter. As a guy, one thing I have learned is that there is such a thing as mansplaining. I don’t know if it came out of social media.
But the idea of it has been fleshed out of social media. Twitter is a good place to become cognizant of my own mansplaining tendencies, and to learn where sometimes I should just shut up. This is where I shut up. Is that enough of a thing?
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