« Bratislava | Main | Black box for a car »
05.11.05
Sexism against Men
We all know about sexism when it comes to women and probably most people have noticed it the other way around too but here a couple of snippets from the other side of the fence.
I just came back from my lunchtime swim. I was just getting changed when a fully clothed woman walked through the changing rooms. I've complained about this before but they don't seem to take it seriously. They say the woman in question (who seems to hang out on a semi-permanent basis in the men's changing rooms) is there to look after kids. But why can't she take them to the ladies changing room? I pointed out that there weren't any kids around today and I pointed out that if the same thing happened with roles reversed the chances are the police would be called. I don't think it'll make any difference. I think I'm more bothered by the injustice of it than the actual voyeurism per se.
I read that in the UK 9/10 divorces end with the kids allocated to the mother. I know kids don't like to be separated and they generally prefer the mother, but this seems like it might be an unfair weighting, especially when legislation seems to act as a positive incentive for women to leave their men (what's to hold you back if you know you'll get allocated the house and alimony and the kids even if it's you who broke up the relationship by having an affair (this happened to my sis's husband and others I've heard of)).
In a Father's Day television interview in 2002, Bob Geldof spoke out against laws that favored mothers in custody matters. The response was overwhelming: a flood of letters from anguished fathers, more mail than his advocacy on behalf of Africa had ever unleashed. "I just wanted to be with my kids 50% of the time," he told TIME. "If a man and a woman live together and it fails, that's tragic. But if you have children, whole universes close to you" if you're prevented from seeing them.
"Our system is adversarial," he said, "...The law says it's gender neutral, but 93% of children go to the women — how is that neutral? It amounts to state-sanctioned kidnapping, the willful breakup of families."
And here's another one - positive discrimination for jobs. I'm all for equal opportunity. But all so often, equal opportunity is confused with equal numbers. The success of an equal opportunities policy is sometimes guaged by the whether there are an equal number of each sex in a job category. I recently attended a talk by an equal opportunities officer in our organization where she presented a chart showing that the numbers of women in certain jobs was not the same as the number of men, as evidence that women didn't have equal opportunities. When I made what I thought was a very balanced and un-rabid comment that there wasn't necessarily a connection between equal opportunities and equal numbers, citing for example the zero number of male secretaries in our organization, she jumped down my throat and said I was being controversial and I got the distinct impression several of the women in the room were having violent thoughts towards me.
Finally I came across this in a recent job description pre-interview
"XXXX is an equal opportunities employer and accepts applications without distinction on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation. Applications from women are encouraged." (Yes I know it could mean just that women shouldn't be put off applying, it didn't give me confidence in equal opportunities for that job....)
I support true equal opportunities, not inverting an unfair system so it's unfair in the opposite direction.
Posted by Giles at 05.11.05 13:15
Comments
I know the feeling; I've recently been trying to get a job with the TSA. Aside from passing the test with flying colors (instructor said I had the highest out of 83 candidates) and having a military background, I'm being told there is no position for me at this time. The reason? They want more female candidates. When I asked how many female candidates were on the list they replied zero waiting. And they have 6 slots open and security at this airport is below what it's supposed to be. This is what "equal" opportunity laws do to our country.
Posted by: Jeremy at 21.12.05 08:04
i am choosing not to write my name because i want the person this is directed to read this. i'm (16 year old male) in a history class where i have a male probably in his mid to lae 20's. Its a hard class. But what bothers me is, I bust my ass on every assignment and manage to get a C, B if i am lucky. But the girl that has the 34DD and a cute face half asses the whole assignment and geta B or A. i had a friend who forgot to turn in an assignment, the teacher told him to turn it in by the end of the day. But with classes it is impossible to turn it in. Another person, a female, for got to turn in the same assingment, the teacher told her o turn it in when ever she wants. Why? Because she was a cute girl. The teacher complains how he doesn't tolerate sexism and people, men, should change there views about women. I'm all for that, but if he is going to show favortism to women and cut me and other men out of the grade we deserve, i think that is bullshit. Sexism against women does exist and it is true that it needs to stop. But we are still over looking sexism against men, not as big of an issue, but still it should be considered. Equal treatment should be equal on both parts.
-Anonymous
Posted by: Anonymous at 23.01.06 00:20