Two arguments I have against her, the first entitled "Power from everywhere", the second "You're still a douche".
Power
It is a common mistake to call our culture misogynistic; our culture is chauvinistic. The prejudice we experience, at least here in the U.S, does not simply wish to advocate the suffering of women and minorities out of irrational sadism. The truth is far worse.
See, hatred is simple and straightforward. It's very easy to identify your enemy when they simply intend to destroy you with force of arms. It is much more difficult to orient yourself in the face of a tyrant; one who attempts not to destroy, but assert control.
Our culture most certainly has affection and respect for women and minorities, as long as they behave in the way it wants them to behave. Not only are they punished for disobeying it, they are rewarded for reinforcing it.
And in a power relationship this unfair, a structure of lies that equals it's unfairness in complexity must support it. Because these rules are so complex, unintended results are common place.
I would say, with only mild tentativeness, that the structure still favors white men, even today. Nonetheless, there are many sources of power that women and minorities can access due to their lower standing in the structure that those who occupy the top cannot, even if the power they gain is comparatively small.
In violent domestic situations, women are assumed to be the victim, and thus people are more prepared to help them. Women cannot be drafted. In social situations, many people will work to avoid prejudging African Americans, for fear of being seen as racist. These are perhaps small victories, but the circumstances of their existence is what must be understood.
When someone plays into these stereotypes, they play into the web of lies just as much; the idea that a woman cannot be violent, or a black man powerful and corrupt, and more importantly the collective assumptions that birthed them, are reinforced.
"Of course women can't be violent, their biology and psychology are just oriented towards different things than a man's."
This is the same logic that is used to create ALL double standards, not just the ones that shake out in favor of women.
And this says nothing of how dangerous it is to hold someones word as truth simply because of where the web of lies would place them. People use their connections with women and minorities to obfuscate their oppression all the time.
"I don't hit women no matter what; that can't be sexist, my mother is the one who taught me not to do it."
"My friend is black, and he thinks this is okay."
The validity of an argument is not determined by it's source, and women and minorities are just as capable of making flawed arguments as anyone else. The argument does not become correct because it was argued by the right person.
Encouraging this kind of reasoning, these fallacious shortcuts to understanding human nature, is in and of itself an act of prejudice, because it is weaver of the aforementioned web of lies, the corner stone in the unjust structure: The idea that people should be judged based on where they came from instead of who they are.
Douchebags
Here's the bottom line; treating people differently because they had the audacity to be born with a certain amount melanin in their skin, or with one set of genitals as opposed to another, is a shitty thing to do. It's small minded, it's shallow, it's illogical, it's obnoxious, it's unfair, and it's destructive. Even if doing didn't serve to create a narrative of oppression, it would still be a shitty thing to do, and you'd still be a shithead for doing it, sexist and racist or not.
People like this are not our friends and they are not on our side. We may have a common enemy in the form of the modern power structure, but they aren't fighting it because they want to do what's right, all they care about is how it inconveniences them. All they do is make the cause seem more and more unwelcoming and unreasonable to the outside world.
If in 200 years, we've reached the end of this conflict, and the ideas of treating a woman as less than a man, or an African American as less than a Caucasian, are relics of the past, I don't want future generations to deal with the same problems in a different skin because we compromised our ideas and lost sight of the true goal; because the only lessons we taught them were "Respect women" or "Respect black people", instead of teaching them to respect all people.
Power
It is a common mistake to call our culture misogynistic; our culture is chauvinistic. The prejudice we experience, at least here in the U.S, does not simply wish to advocate the suffering of women and minorities out of irrational sadism. The truth is far worse.
See, hatred is simple and straightforward. It's very easy to identify your enemy when they simply intend to destroy you with force of arms. It is much more difficult to orient yourself in the face of a tyrant; one who attempts not to destroy, but assert control.
Our culture most certainly has affection and respect for women and minorities, as long as they behave in the way it wants them to behave. Not only are they punished for disobeying it, they are rewarded for reinforcing it.
And in a power relationship this unfair, a structure of lies that equals it's unfairness in complexity must support it. Because these rules are so complex, unintended results are common place.
I would say, with only mild tentativeness, that the structure still favors white men, even today. Nonetheless, there are many sources of power that women and minorities can access due to their lower standing in the structure that those who occupy the top cannot, even if the power they gain is comparatively small.
In violent domestic situations, women are assumed to be the victim, and thus people are more prepared to help them. Women cannot be drafted. In social situations, many people will work to avoid prejudging African Americans, for fear of being seen as racist. These are perhaps small victories, but the circumstances of their existence is what must be understood.
When someone plays into these stereotypes, they play into the web of lies just as much; the idea that a woman cannot be violent, or a black man powerful and corrupt, and more importantly the collective assumptions that birthed them, are reinforced.
"Of course women can't be violent, their biology and psychology are just oriented towards different things than a man's."
This is the same logic that is used to create ALL double standards, not just the ones that shake out in favor of women.
And this says nothing of how dangerous it is to hold someones word as truth simply because of where the web of lies would place them. People use their connections with women and minorities to obfuscate their oppression all the time.
"I don't hit women no matter what; that can't be sexist, my mother is the one who taught me not to do it."
"My friend is black, and he thinks this is okay."
The validity of an argument is not determined by it's source, and women and minorities are just as capable of making flawed arguments as anyone else. The argument does not become correct because it was argued by the right person.
Encouraging this kind of reasoning, these fallacious shortcuts to understanding human nature, is in and of itself an act of prejudice, because it is weaver of the aforementioned web of lies, the corner stone in the unjust structure: The idea that people should be judged based on where they came from instead of who they are.
Douchebags
Here's the bottom line; treating people differently because they had the audacity to be born with a certain amount melanin in their skin, or with one set of genitals as opposed to another, is a shitty thing to do. It's small minded, it's shallow, it's illogical, it's obnoxious, it's unfair, and it's destructive. Even if doing didn't serve to create a narrative of oppression, it would still be a shitty thing to do, and you'd still be a shithead for doing it, sexist and racist or not.
People like this are not our friends and they are not on our side. We may have a common enemy in the form of the modern power structure, but they aren't fighting it because they want to do what's right, all they care about is how it inconveniences them. All they do is make the cause seem more and more unwelcoming and unreasonable to the outside world.
If in 200 years, we've reached the end of this conflict, and the ideas of treating a woman as less than a man, or an African American as less than a Caucasian, are relics of the past, I don't want future generations to deal with the same problems in a different skin because we compromised our ideas and lost sight of the true goal; because the only lessons we taught them were "Respect women" or "Respect black people", instead of teaching them to respect all people.
