Quote:
Originally Posted by Papillon Noir
Yes. I read the post.
I'm actually 27. I don't know if that still qualifies me for the "young naive bubble" or not. I remember this subject coming up in my sociology class when I was in college back in the early part of this decade.
I know there is a group out there (college fraternity/sororitity types are a good example) that only has very gender specific interests and roles. These types typically stay with their own gender because they believe that only these people have any interest to them and therefore possibly the only ones deserving respect. Apparently, these types of people are the ones that you work with and for that I am sorry.
As for the whole wife-beater scenario, I think that is more a dominance thing than a male/female thing, and that these men beat women because they are perceived as weak. I think they would also beat a man if they were being perceived as such. Rape again falls under that whole power trip thing.
Now there is a another group beyond this gender specific group that blurs the lines on gender roles where both men and women have interests in both stereotypical male/female roles. This is the group that usually doesn't only associate with their gender, but with the opposite sex as well. I do not believe that this group is in the minority.
Maybe this is a generational thing as my peers were all born after the women's liberation movement. My personal interests also expand both stereotypical gender roles, so maybe I'm projecting my personal experience on not living within a gender specific role. Regardless, I do believe that gender roles are changing and the traditional stereotypes are no longer the norm.
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Male/female friendship and socializing is becoming the norm, but there are still plenty of people who choose sexual partners and lovers without looking at them as friends. Can you honestly tell me you don't know any men who hang out with other women in a friendly capacity while not spending time socially with the girls they're dating? There are still a lot of divisions there and a lot of people who think it is taboo for friendships to cross into romantic territory, instead of realizing this should be the default. As for rape, yes it is obviously a dominance, but ask yourself: why does an individual feel they have a right to dominate somebody? Women's liberation did happen, but to a certain extent, it's a cultural myth. History isn't that concrete. If Martin Luther King defeated racism as we are taught in elementary school, how come there are still hate groups? I caution you against a complacent sense of triumph over such social ills, Betty Friedan or otherwise. The American male at large still demeans women, still gets girlfriends pregnant and runs out on them, still doesn't respect women as people and still often has a "bros before hos" attitude that is demeaning to relationships. I went to a liberal arts college that I have a feeling is more hippie progressive than most (400 students on a hill living in old farmhouses and eating in a barn) , yet jello shots were still a date rape drug, guys still couldn't wait to ditch their girlfriends to play videogames with their pals and many guys still didn't hold that much of a progressive stance. In this liberal college town, girls were still plowed down with liquor and date raped by townies who ran New Age stores and sold used Noam Chomsky books. It's important to know that the permissive, respectful male is part of a very small group. I'm no misogynist. My mother was an unmarried marine. Taught me to kill a man with my barehands and I knew damn well she could do it to anybody she needed to if it came down to it. I've been dating and living with the same girl for almost five years now and I was a friend to her without laying a hand on her for two years, walking through a blizzard to buy her cigarettes I myself am allergic to. I have no anti-female bias and that's how I can see more clearly when others do and it's still everywhere.