wooo feminism

As a follow up to our rousing discussion on feminism, I shall start this post :D

Kelsie was saying after class that women (subconsciously?) are more sexual in order to gain advantages in a male dominated environment (we used the examples of debate and corporate settings). Women, feeling somehow disadvantaged to men, want to use their sexuality in order to gain favors. Men don't really have that option. Kelsie felt that it shouldn't be that way because it's unfair to men and some women who don't do that. This group of people essentially have to work twice as hard as women "flaunting it" (thanks Fatima) in order for them to be considered.
I agree with this notion. While it is resourceful, a quality that shouldn't be inherently bad, wearing provocative clothing isn't as great a quality as, say, hard work, integrity, etc... If women want to prove themselves as humans rather than objects, they really should start acting that way.
I don't believe in feminism in its connotative sense, but rather, as Laz is, I believe in equality. Men and women should be considered on a level playing field. I think it'd be unfair if Hilary Clinton was elected and people said, "Oh, it's because she's a woman." Why couldn't we say she won because she has better ideas? Shouldn't we compare what our candidates are saying and proposing rather than looking at who they are on a superficial level? You know, like how we're supposed to?
And Kelsie brought up the interesting point of how racism is greatly frowned upon while sexism... not so much. I can't really give an answer as to why that occurs but I think it all really boils down to the individual. Personally, I don't feel too offended when someone makes fun of my race. I'll laugh at the Asian jokes because that's what they are, jokes. Someone else, however, might get grossly offended. We just hear about the people who get offended because they feel that they need to do something about it. The other half, people who aren't really offended, just don't really care enough to say anything. Same thing goes with feminist jokes. People can either laugh at it or get offended by it. It really depends on what kind of sense of humor the person has. In my opinion, people who get offended by those kinds of jokes need to lighten up a bit. Sure, it might be embarrassing for a little bit, but it's just a joke. It's relatively minor compared to, say, being excluded from something (promotion, raise, an organization) because of your race, gender, creed etc.

Concerning make up, vanity and such...
Men aren't necessarily at fault. Sure we are the ones benefiting from it, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're the cause of it. It's more of a societal thing vs gender. Society makes us think we're ugly and that we need to make ourselves look prettier in order to please other people. Also, don't think that men don't feel the same pressures. We do. How do you think an out of shape ugly looking guy feels when he sees a movie where a strong muscular guy always gets the girl? There are two possibilities. One, he's really insecure about his body image and hates himself for being fat and ugly. Two, he accepts himself as who he is and doesn't really care. It really all comes down to whether you accept who you see in the mirror or not. Societal pressures may force you to think one way or the other but it all boils down to that individual decision of acceptance.

My overriding philosophy about this is that it's up to the individual to make something out of himself (I'm using the masculine pronoun just for simplicity). He can't expect free handouts if he wants to make something of himself in life. He has to work hard for it. That kind of determination is what should be judged, not race, gender, attractiveness or any other superficial quality. It sounds corny, but it's really what's inside that counts.

I hope I didn't say anything too controversial... I think I didn't. We'll see.