I think judging the progress feminism has made is ultimately a matter of perspective. Undeniably, feminism has given women rights in its history; how many rights, or how far feminism has gone, depends on the individual's vision of the conclusion. It's easy to say "until women are equal to men," but that vision is too distant to understand in concrete terms. The effect is that the vision of the "end" will change in little ways all the time, and therefore the journey will never end. When I mentioned the results of feminism, I intended the meaning to be "the net result of it so far" rather than "the relative progress overall."
I think that no matter how one looks at it, women in the States today have it better off than during, let's say, the early 20th century. Or your grandmother's time. Thankfully, we can agree on that.
The points you bring up afterward (the pay gap, abortion clinics closing, Trump, etc.) seem to be issues that come and go with the metaphorical tides. The Democratic party in the States platform most of those topics, from what I understand. It is likely that those issues will have legal solutions once they get back into office. I understand that there are arguments for and against each of the issues you've mentioned, so I think that people who are better informed should make the call. It sounds like I'm hand-waving your problems aside, and for that I'm sorry, but I'm hardly an expert in the specifics of feminist matters and I don't have any solutions to those problems (again, sorry!). If it reassures you even a little, my English major courses featured both "male" literature (from historic writers) and "female" literature (from contemporary writers), and I thought they were just about equally boring! Academia seems to take feminism very seriously, so logically feminism should always have a strong support base in the humanities.
Of course, I can't speak for all the men in the world about their lack of action for feminism. I can only speak for myself.
If anyone came up to me in person and asked me to actively participate in some feminist march or something, I'd likely walk away. Why? Because the problems feminism believes patriarchy brings to one's life are fairly negligable to me (since I'm a male). Problems I do face, I learn to overcome. While fostering systematic change is a good investment of time for society, it's not a good investment for the individual. If it takes another century for feminism to bring equity for women, and it decides then to help men, I will be either dead or wishing I was. As personable, helpful, and "gentlemanly" as I try to be, I refuse to spend my life for the sake of another person.
I'm more invested in the development of the new male, for obvious reasons.
Again, sorry. I'm not a saint, but I hope you find one.
In reply to Hi Jeremiah, thanks for your by ecataneo
Hello again, Cataneo!
I think judging the progress feminism has made is ultimately a matter of perspective. Undeniably, feminism has given women rights in its history; how many rights, or how far feminism has gone, depends on the individual's vision of the conclusion. It's easy to say "until women are equal to men," but that vision is too distant to understand in concrete terms. The effect is that the vision of the "end" will change in little ways all the time, and therefore the journey will never end. When I mentioned the results of feminism, I intended the meaning to be "the net result of it so far" rather than "the relative progress overall."
I think that no matter how one looks at it, women in the States today have it better off than during, let's say, the early 20th century. Or your grandmother's time. Thankfully, we can agree on that.
The points you bring up afterward (the pay gap, abortion clinics closing, Trump, etc.) seem to be issues that come and go with the metaphorical tides. The Democratic party in the States platform most of those topics, from what I understand. It is likely that those issues will have legal solutions once they get back into office. I understand that there are arguments for and against each of the issues you've mentioned, so I think that people who are better informed should make the call. It sounds like I'm hand-waving your problems aside, and for that I'm sorry, but I'm hardly an expert in the specifics of feminist matters and I don't have any solutions to those problems (again, sorry!). If it reassures you even a little, my English major courses featured both "male" literature (from historic writers) and "female" literature (from contemporary writers), and I thought they were just about equally boring! Academia seems to take feminism very seriously, so logically feminism should always have a strong support base in the humanities.
Of course, I can't speak for all the men in the world about their lack of action for feminism. I can only speak for myself.
If anyone came up to me in person and asked me to actively participate in some feminist march or something, I'd likely walk away. Why? Because the problems feminism believes patriarchy brings to one's life are fairly negligable to me (since I'm a male). Problems I do face, I learn to overcome. While fostering systematic change is a good investment of time for society, it's not a good investment for the individual. If it takes another century for feminism to bring equity for women, and it decides then to help men, I will be either dead or wishing I was. As personable, helpful, and "gentlemanly" as I try to be, I refuse to spend my life for the sake of another person.
I'm more invested in the development of the new male, for obvious reasons.
Again, sorry. I'm not a saint, but I hope you find one.