[quote=FlyerInHi]CAr, women being discriminated against is one thing, but it’s nothing like racism. Unless women marry women and have only female kids, I don’t see a continuing cycle of oppression.[/quote]
Sexism is so ingrained in our society that the vast majority of people (even women) don’t even notice it.
Here’s just a single example (of many) that most people wouldn’t bat an eye at:
We were with a group of family friends — all of the adults and kids hang out together — and one of the dads was talking about how he wanted to start a “dad’s group” at the local school so that all of the dads could get together and play cards, do stuff with the kids, etc.. I looked at him and said:
When you say that, it’s like telling a black person, ‘ni**er, get to the back of the bus.’ [segregate]
He just about fell off his chair, and everyone stared at me with their mouths open. Nobody in the room got it.
So, I further explained…
Let’s say that we’re a mixed-race group (which we were), and someone said that they wanted to start a “white person’s group” so that they could socialize and hang out with the other white people in the room.
Everyone easily understood how this would seem racist toward those who were not white, and everyone easily understood how the non-white people in the room would be offended.
People will try to claim that men and women are different, that we have different cultures and interests; but I call BS on that. We are **told** to have different interests. I can’t tell you how many times men have said: “We’re going to let you ladies enjoy your girl talk while we watch football (or talk politics, cars, etc.).” Those of us who have absolutely NO interest in fashion, gossip, lengthy discussions about our kids, etc. are forced to sit in the girl groups because it would obviously be frowned upon if we were to join the group of men on the other side of the room who are all too often having much more interesting conversations.
Besides, one could easily argue that black people, Asian people, etc. have a different “culture,” but should that be used to condone creating different groups that exclude them? How well do you think that would go over?
I write this just to point out how subtle it might seem to most people because of how society has depicted women throughout all of human history, but to those of us who feel perfectly “equal,” it is very offensive and far too prevalent.
