Jurupa, when I say that men and women are equal, I don't mean idenitical, but simply equal in rights and dignity. I do not believe that women should be on the front lines of combat, although I do believe that women should have to register for the draft (technically, I believe that different fitness standards for men and women should be abolished and replaced with one standard for all; if women don't qualify for combat work, there are still positions that they can hold which would free up more ppl who do quality to fight). The courts absolutely do not favour women--there's an appallingly low ratio of rape convictions in relation to the number that are reported. For some reason, women are still blamed for somehow enticing their attacker, particularly when wearing 'provocative' dress. Men have even been found not guilty because the woman involved was proven to either have an interest in group sex or fantasies relating to forced sexual encounters.
Family courts do disproportionately favour women in divorce, and I would argue that father's rights should be better protected than they are, but two wrongs do not make a right. Saying that women's lower pay is compensated by a bias towards them in the court room is ludicously wrong--there are two wrongs here, both of which need to be corrected.
On what grounds should a woman be paid less than a man for the same work? I'm aware that women often take more time off then men because of their families; I'm not arguing that woman A who has taken time off for her family should be paid the same amount as man B who hasn't taken any time off. What I am arguing, however, is that when time off is factored in, women and men should receive the same pay for the same work, particularly since there is no logical justification that can be given for a pay difference apart from the eroneous belief that either one's work or one's value is inherently higher by virtue of having a y chromosome.
Jelly, your reasoning is circular and retrograde: men need more money because they need to attract hot women, and hot women are attracted to rich men because they can't earn as much money on their own. Why on earth can't attractive women earn their own money? Is there something about good looks that somehow render attractive women incompetent? Are we now going back to the whole sterotype of brainy women can't be attractive, while attractive women can't be intelligent?
A woman's value does not begin and end at her looks--that's incredibily anachronstic and mysogenstic as well. Success in life does not and should not boil down to the partner that one is able to attract. Some people never marry and settle down--does that mean that they are failures at life?
And what studies go on and how about how we (meaning men and women) can't be equal? I need citations. Did you know that international research has consistently shown that the most effective way to end poverty in the third world is to educate women, giving them the skills that they need to participate in the marketplace? (
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magaz ... men-t.html) How is this possible if men are so much more deserving of fat paychecks than their female counterparts?
K-loc: I'll believe that (you're a good guy when it comes to the way you treat women) when I see it, not before. All I have to go off of here is what you say online, and I put far more weight on your arguments than your assertions. One can still treat women well while holding misogynistic views--the two are not mutually exclusive.
I'd guess that your distaste for Feminism is due to the "we hate men" branch of it. I don't subscribe to that, nor does anyone I know. I would, however, like to know that I'm going to earn the same amount of money as the men that I work with, and am not going to be disadvantaged because I happen to be female. I would like to know that people who meet me are not going to judge my value as a person based on how I look, or the wealth and status of the man that I marry.
There's no reason that a woman can't be promisicous and a Feminist as well. Why on earth should men be able to have all the fun (in this case, casual sex)? Why can't women do it as well?