Displaying items by tag: patriarchy

In response to those dangerous extremists who believe that a woman’s testimony against a man is ipso facto an unquestionable first principle in ethics; to the irrational mob who would stampede over the presumption of innocence, due procedure and the rule of law; to those rabid revolutionaries who would gladly dehumanise a man on the basis of his gender, political persuasion, “privilege” or class, and then destroy him—the logical outcome of which attitude is the return of the guillotine for conservatives (I would not be surprised if this is their unspoken fantasy)—and finally, to all those “intellectuals”, such as Martha Nussbaum, who in their desire for recognition by other chattering academics have steeped so low as to come to the defence of these mobsters: these words are for you.

The discrimination industry seems to dwell in a fantasy world we could simply refer to as “Alt Reality”. In this fantasy world, equal positive outcomes for females or blacks is a sign of progress, but equal negative outcomes is a sign of sexism or racism. Facts are entirely irrelevant to the narrative that white men are always powerful and privileged and therefore always the oppressors of people who are not white or male.

Those who know me know that I have never considered myself a feminist. I've always held on to the radical idea that men and women were put on the earth to help each other out, and not to compete with each other. Before I had my family, I worked in a male-dominated industry, but never felt excluded, passed over or discriminated against. (However, I was once asked to help out in a recording studio when an all-female band wanted an all-female crew. They weren't interested in my qualifications, just my gender. Isn't that discrimination?)

Maybe my favourable experience within a male-dominated workplace was coincidence - or maybe, just maybe - this was the fruit of an attitude which sees my femininity as one of my God-given attributes, something to be grateful for and not rebelled against, something which marks us with special features that complement those of our counterparts.