TheSchoolofAthens Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Imagine a book store full of books on race, gender, feminism, and communism. No need to imagine it, I was in a book store just like that this past Sunday with my girlfriend and another friend. Here is a picture to make it seem more real: [picture coming soon, can't figure out how to upload it.]While browsing the bookstore, the three of us soon started to discuss gender. Our friend first asked what I thought about the idea of gender as oppression. I responded by saying that I don't see how it could possibly be oppression. We talked about how transgender people can feel trapped in the wrong body and how people can be offended if someone calls them feminine or masculine. This ended up leading to my girlfriend and our friend agreeing on the conclusion that we shouldn't have these words or use these words to describe people, because it ends up making people feel bad or it oppresses them. The entire time I was frustrated. I know that this gender oppression argument is straight out of feminism and marxism, after all we are in a marxist book store (the book store branches off of a coffee shop). It made me annoyed because I thought my girlfriend agreed with me that gender is not oppression, as a week or so ago we had briefly talked about an article thought said gender is just an oppressive social construct and we seemed to agree that it isn't oppressive. Offending people isn't oppression, nor do people have the right to not be offended. I couldn't wrap my head around what they were trying to argue, nor could I understand why they thought the words should be banned. I concluded that they are simply arguing for universal acceptance of those who they deem worthy of acceptance, and universal ostracizing of those who use the words feminine and masculine. I couldn't understand the logic behind why such words needed to be done away with, because there is no logic there!I argued that the words feminine and masculine are simply words that describe generalities based on biological facts, men with testosterone and women with estrogen. How could a transgender person even describe how they feel, what they like, or what they would be comfortable with if they couldn't use the words feminine or masculine (or synonyms, because those words would have to be done away with too)?! One couldn't say, "I feel like I'm in the wrong body, my entire body is just too masculine." Or, "I feel like I'd be more comfortable in feminine clothes." Both my girlfriend and our friend are anarcho capitalists, but our friend seems to be not dedicated to rationality, and more so an anarcho capitalist who is also leaning towards the left in terms of sexism and gender oppression. I'm surprised my girlfriend believes what she says, it makes me nervous, and while it is acceptable for us to agree to disagree I just can't fathom the logic behind what they were arguing for.
Justus Ranvier Posted March 31, 2015 Posted March 31, 2015 While browsing the bookstore, the three of us soon started to discuss gender. Our friend first asked what I thought about the idea of gender as oppression. I responded by saying that I don't see how it could possibly be oppression. We talked about how transgender people can feel trapped in the wrong body and how people can be offended if someone calls them feminine or masculine. This ended up leading to my girlfriend and our friend agreeing on the conclusion that we shouldn't have these words or use these words to describe people, because it ends up making people feel bad or it oppresses them. Imagine you met somebody in a bookstore who declared, "I am Genghis Kahn." Not, "I feel like Genghis Kahn" or, "I wish I was Genghis Kahn" or "I feel anxious about the idea of not being Genghis Kahn". They claim to be, in fact, the historical Genghis Kahn. You'd probably be sceptical about this claim, and you might start to express the basis of your scepticism in terms of biology, chronology, and geography. Then suppose the person declares that biology, chronology, and geography are all social constructs which are used to oppress people and make them feel bad. At some point you'd probably recognize the behaviour of this person as being extremely aggressive. "Genghis Kahn" wants you to ignore all reason and evidence and conform to his narrative, and he justifies this based only on how it effects his feelings, yet doesn't mention or consider how you will feel about being the subject of his non-negotiable demands. 1
A Madman Person Guy Posted April 3, 2015 Posted April 3, 2015 Doesn't it seem very conspicuous that the occurrence of men with "gender dysphoria" is that much higher than women (statistics disagree, but in general it seems to be a rate of 3 or 4 of the former to 1 of the latter)? I mean, looking at the DSM and definitions, I have to be a bit suspicious as to whether if we've actually gotten that much better at identifying "transpeople" to warrant the rising number of people who opt for gender reassignment. But maybe I'm just a bit too susp-... Oh, wait. Then there's the fact that the greatest issue and reason for suicide among these surgically "corrected" men appears to be that they feel they're not accepted as true women among other women. Then there's the gay men who act stereotypically female, seemingly just because that's how they've been "typecast", there's "metrosexuality", there's mandatory "sensitivity courses", there's the portrayal of women as inherently just more smart or socially savvy in TV series, commercials and movies, there's literature like "Women's Ways of Knowing", there's the blatant feminist bent of most of the media corps in Europe at least, there's an abundance of quotation marks on my part for all these sissifying concepts that entail making yourself act more feminine... and the overweening message from society at large that seems to say; "It's better to be a woman, or at least morally superior". I mean, I wouldn't be so insensitive and disgusting as to suggest that most of these "transwomen" are in fact simply the result of young, insecure and weak men who either haven't had any decent male role models to go by or any typically male behavior images set in their minds, or who haven't been pushed down into the soles of their shoes enough and been taught to man up, or both. And that thus they've come to seek out a different gender role that does not place such a burden on them or which seems like an easier path to some kind of desirability and innate social reward. Or that if questioned, I wouldn't be surprised if most of them would rather fall under the definition of gay men who were simply disturbed and latched on to some concept for validation, be it the social concept of the "superior" femininity or a female idol or what have you. Oh wait. I am that insensitive and crass. So that's exactly what I'm suggesting. 2
aeonicentity Posted April 5, 2015 Posted April 5, 2015 Is this your bookstore? Anyone who talks about Oppression in our modern era really wants to talk about one things: Money. Since we've long since done away with actual oppression, and the only thing that's left is people's perception that people owe them things, either because of the past, or because of their own choices, or because of the virtue that life isn't fair. Just remember that. Next time someone keeps talking about oppression, ask them how much money they're asking for to stop whinging about how unfair life is.
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