The Damned Olde Man

Posted By TDOM on April 10, 2010

Part 1 of 5

Follow these links to the remaining parts (once published the links will work): Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

I recently found a post titled 15 Questions from a Feminist at a blog called True Equality written by a young man named Mark who defines himself as a libertarian, atheist, and men’s rights activist. I decided to answer them. Not all of the questions were particularly relevant, so I cut a few of them out. Here are my answers to the remaining questions. Follow the links provided to read Mark’s answers.

In reading the comments to his answers, I believe the author of the questions is a woman named Sophia. She states that she never claimed to be a feminist. I also intend to let Mark know that I co-opted the questions from his site. I hope he isn’t offended. Maybe he’ll come and leave a comment. Since my own answers consist of over 3800 words, I’ll be posting them over several days and will provide links from one article to the next. Part 1 consists of the first 2 questions. Part 2 consists of questions 3 and 4. Part 3 consists of questions 5-11, omitting questions 7-8. Part 4 consists of questions 12 and 13. Part 5 consists of questions 14 and 15 and is the final part.

1. What is feminism to you? Is its position defensive or offensive? Do you think one could be sympathetic to its theories?

Feminism is an ideology that promotes the hatred and denigration of males, i.e., misandry. It purports to be about equality for women. That’s the hook that gives it its draw. It gains sympathy by appealing to one’s sense of fairplay. But, its very foundation is an attack on men in general. This makes it quite offensive. It is based on the idea that all men oppress all women. This makes all women the victims of all men. Patriarchy is the system through which men maintain power and control, and marriage is the institution that grants them this authority. This view of men as “evil oppressors” and women as “innocent victims” is what defines feminism as an ideology of hate.

2. Because you believe in equal opportunity as opposed to material equality, do you think that little girls and teenage girls really have equal opportunity? Or are young boys disadvantaged?

Material equality is a socialist construct and can never be achieved, not even in a socialist state. It is based on the concept that equality must be measured by outcome. Equal opportunity is a more democratic principle based on justice and fairness. It is not necessarily achievable either, but should be the goal. Because of differences in individual abilities, outcomes can never be equal, regardless of opportunity. However, outcome can sometimes be used to measure opportunity, though not always.

Our current education system is an illustration of this. Much attention has been paid over the last two decades to the disparity between boys and girls in math and science. Both sexes went to the same schools, had the same classes and teachers, and therefore the same opportunity, but boys achieved the greater outcome. When resources were focused on girls, girls achieved parity with boys. By contrast, almost no attention has been paid to the disparity between boys and girls in reading and language. This gap has actually widened in that same period of time. The result is that girls make better grades, have greater interest in school, and higher levels of participation in academically oriented extra-curricular activities. Boys tend to feel that school is for girls, get into more trouble, and graduate at lower rates. This has resulted in considerably greater opportunity for girls to attend higher education and women now outnumber men on college campuses by about 3-2. Since obtaining an education is arguably the most important task of childhood, boys are now disadvantaged compared to girls and this disadvantage will carry over into adulthood.

This concludes the answers to the first two questions and to part one of this discussion. Feel free to leave comments. If this is your first time commenting, it may not show up right away. To prevent spam and abuse, I have set up the comment section to require approval of the first comment from any person. After this, if you sign in, your comments should appear immediately.

-TDOM

related post

• TDOM Rants
• The Man Cave
• Quesions from a Feminist, part 2
• Questions from a Feminist, part 3
• Will Men Become the New Welfare Class?

Categories: Men's Issues
Tags: Equal opportunity, Feminism, Higher education, Justice, Men, Men's rights, Misandry, Patriarchy, People, Sexism, Women, Women's rights