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MsJaneFuzzyWuzzy

(58 posts)
2. actually the treatment of women can't be 'flipped' onto men
Wed Jan 6, 2016, 12:58 PM
Jan 2016

Because the origin of the treatment is the inferior status of women, and the effects of it depend on that status.

A man is not threatened by something that threatens a woman. And a man would be amused by something that demeans a woman.

"Go grill me a burger" doesn't carry with it the implied "you are my inferior and your needs and wishes are subordinate to mine, and I am entitled to tell you what to do, and I am even entitled and willing and able to enforce the behaviour I demand of you if I choose."

The only way a man might begin to grasp what women face every day is to consider some aspect of his life in which his status is inferior and how he feels, or would feel, if someone who has status higher than him exploited it to control or insult or hurt him.

A man who belongs to a racial or ethnic or religious minority might be able to get the idea. A working-class man with low social status might, too.

But a man whose every characteristic gives him privileged status really isn't going to feel powerless or insulted if a woman says "go grill me a burger". He might be annoyed at the nerve, but that's about all. And he'd probably be flattered if he were referred to as "the hot guy at work". And he probably does think he should be in the garage. Why would he want the lower status of a kitchen worker??

The video maybe shows how ridiculous some of the things women experience are, but I don't think it does much to generate empathy.

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