Interesting thread ... a few thoughts: (too many for one post so will follow up unless I get beat up and need to regroup!!):
I look for a man who is comfortable enough to accept women as equals, and who accepts feminism as a necessary equal rights movement. This is not just "one of the things I look for", it is the PRIMARY thing I look for.
I think a lot of the 'resentment', backlash even, exhibited by some men lies not in opposition to a notion of equality in a moral, legal and ethical sense (etc) but in equating it with 'equality' in a more literal sense. Could it lie in a misplaced belief by some men that women want to be treated in the same way they (men) would treat another man. I'm also of the view that much of it is rather more malicious.
Of course women
do require and should expect equal treatment, but (I believe) not necessarily the sort of 'equality' and 'treatment' a great many men seem to (mis)understand those words imply.
In my opinion, it did not go far ENOUGH. There are still sexist biases out there, and that needs to stop. I have been hurt by those things all my life.
Perhaps, but differing understandings of equality aside, equality is a binary state. We all get hurt by things in life, sometimes, often even, our perception of the root cause of that hurt isn't accurate.
Society is indeed replete with sexist biases, and by no means are all of these male in origin or support a male agenda. This is something too frequently (and conveniently) glossed over. This blind eye is turned by both men and women of course, albeit for largely different reasons. I'm sure some men feel 'afraid' or rather may be unwilling to speak out against what are often
blatant inequities.
This may be for fear of being tagged 'Neanderthals' (as one poster put it), or perhaps they simply don't want to be 'reminded' (somewhat inaccurately perhaps) that men had a zillion years of 'domination' and now it's payback time.
That sentiment may have some poetic justification and that some women exploit this is unarguable. But ultimately, while this approach may have a short term feel good factor, in terms of achieving true (gender) equality in society I'd say it's ultimately self defeating.
I agree but in order for that to happen we would need major change to occur at the federal level.
Legislation is generally reactive, generally it reacts to demands for social change, it doesn't usually act as a vehicle for them. In some cases, such as this perhaps, it can do both.
Men lost absolutely NOTHING!
I swear sometimes, you must live in some other world. Men 'lost' a great many things, many, perhaps most of them intangible. I'm not suggesting they shouldn't have been lost or adjusted, but to deny their loss at all speaks to either wilful ignorance or mind blowing naievite, perhaps both. I'd argue that the feminist movement has cost women a great deal also, if what many of them tell is true.
This is why I think feminism, for the most part, is healthy. If women are truly free to make their own choices about what they want for themselves they won't be forced into having to accept a life they don't want.
Anything that seeks to redress an inequity is probably healthy. It doesn't matter if it's gender, race, sexuality ... I would suggest however that processes necessary to achieve an end result can be painful, and open to abuse. Sometimes, the end can justify the means.
I LIVED thru the entire feminist movement... and I was actually in support of equal rights.
The
entire feminist movement? It's not quite over yet, in case you hadn't noticed.
Actually? You make that support sound like a virtue.
But, unfortunately, the feminist movement did not merely agitate for equality for women... they agitated for superiority.
On an individual level for some,
yes. But when you speak about 'the feminist movement' you seem to do so as if it were a coherent, unified centrally directed campaign. It wasn't then, and it certainly isn't today. Neither did it have universal or unqualified support from within it its 'ranks'.
It was not enought to be equals to men, they took the tack of disparaging men... of demonizing men and of attacking everything male.
Again, you seem to be generalising the sentiment of comparatively few extremists across an
entire gender.
The political correctness with which our world is now afflicted is the result of the feminist movement.
In part, but there are a great many causal factors, gender is only one of these.
It was bad enough that a man had to negotiate a minefield everytime he spoke to his wife...
But now our entire culture has to WATCH WHAT WE SAY AND HOW WE SAY IT...
I never found problem speaking openly and honestly to women, In my experience receiving a adverse reaction is
generally a result of having said something inherently stupid or offensive and rather less down to gender of the person to whom it's addressed.
I love and prefer women who are equals... I treat them as equals and I actually think of them as equals...
Is that preference an unconscious suggestion that you believe some women are indeed, less than equal? I'm really not sure what you expect for this preference ...
a medal?
I only wish they returned the favor.
Since when is affording a woman (or anyone, really) respect, treating them as an equal
doing them a favour?
