What Women Need

[seabeyond]

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Like all things, the role of woman has evolved over time. What has remained constant, however, is that in nearly every return to cultural piety, the status of women is greatly reduced. There currently is an effort to return to those times once more. Unlike many other issues of social injustice, gender discrimination is not confined to religious fundamentalism. It is far more pervasive and goes to the core of our culture itself. The true liberation of women requires a fundamental redefining of gender roles. Women can take care of themselves and no longer need men to provide for them. When a man can no longer hold over a woman provision for her lifestyle, he is forced to use other, less developed skills to maintain her favor. It gives women much more control in relationships and other social interactions. Additionally, women have increasingly become legitimate competitors in the professional world. Women graduate from high school, college, and graduate school at higher rates than men. Women also tend to get better grades in school. More young women have become disinterested in starting a family, preferring instead to pursue other interests.

Then comes the scary part: women asserting their sexuality. Women have become increasingly free to explore and express their sexual desires and interests. And it turns out, women are as kinky and perverted as men (over 30% of all pornography is purchased by women). That all sounds fine and dandy…until your girlfriend breaks out a surprise apparatus she wants to try on you. Things can get a bit confusing. I believe this confusion has led to resentment from men and women alike. The backlash seems to have started sometime in the 1990s when women’s liberation was rolling along.

I started hearing terms like feminazi catching steam. “Shut up and make me a sandwich” jokes started making the rounds again. Then corporations began doubling down on the glass ceiling. Equal pay became an unreasonable demand because women are hormonal and unreliable employees. In the media, women became increasingly portrayed as victims of physical and sexual brutality or objectified for their sexual beauty. Pornography got flat out violent. Slut shaming became vogue again. And now, reproductive decision-making is being taken out of women’s hands and given to the state. I don’t think it’s a stretch to see the interconnectivity between these events. They’re man’s way of reasserting gender dominance. Unfortunately for its proponents, this reassertion is nothing more than a last desperate gasp. In the end, the War on Women will share the same fate as the Jim Crow south. The extreme vestiges will linger; the rest will die.

As with any movement in social justice, action must be purposeful and deliberate. And in the push for women’s rights we are doubly obstructed. Women are as confused by the redefining of gender roles as men. Many women conform to the male-driven ideal of sexual objectification and submission to remain appealing; many other women conform because they agree with it. Plus, many women are confined by their own guilt and shame about their sexuality.

http://therealkenjones.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/what-women-need/

[redqueen]

1. "... we cannot, as a society, empower women; women must empower themselves."

That whole programming thing, the conditioning, needs a whole lot of work. For boys and girls.

[MadrasT]

2. Apparently...

...all we need to do is participate in wet t-shirt contests (since I keep hearing about how "empowering" that is).