I'm sorry, but not getting involved in sexism is just as bad as being a sexist. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.Crazyflight wrote:Yes, you may recommend it, but why? I'm too young to enjoy most of those privileges, and even so, I don't really have much of an opinion on sexism. I realize that women don't get equal treatment to men. I just try not to get involved in sexism.Kestrad wrote:Crazy, may I recommend that you read the male privilege checklist? I'm not saying that you necessarily enjoy all these privileges, or that you are a bad person if you do, but it helps to give some perspective on just how women still don't get equal treatment as men.
Also, I'd like to point out that when you talk about men being sexualized, it happens far less often--and generally, sexualized men still play far more into male power fantasies than what's arousing for females. If you look at movies, for example, all too often women are framed by their boobs, their butts, whatever men find sexy. It's a concept known as "the male gaze." It's not really the same for men, even when they are portrayed sexily--often they are doing important things and in a dominant position.
I don't really know what to say in response to that. I mean... I guess that's what happens. I try not to notice that kind of thing, because what's the point? People try to advocate feminism to me, or they try to show me the evils of sexism, but what can I do? I don't like sexism, but that's as far as I'll go. I wouldn't really involve other people in what I think about it. It's not like my views on women's rights to abortion, which I'm willing to argue about.
And I'm assuming that you mean the "straight male gaze," because I don't find women's boobs or butts attractive. I don't like the grouping us (meaning homosexual males) with straight males in what we find "sexy," because we are completely different from them (straight males).
In fact, this is exactly why diversity and inclusion departments in businesses advise getting white men involved, because of the trickle-down effect. Basically, if you have a minority group attempting to make a change, the only way the majority will listen if part of the majority is supporting the minority's initiatives. While sexism and certain aspects of male privilege may not directly affect you now, they will, you can be certain of that. And if you wait to form an opinion until you're already involved, then that's years that you could have been helping change people's viewpoints absolutely wasted. What is so wrong with educating yourself and understanding viewpoints even if you're not part of the community, so to speak? When my family moved to a hyper-religious state when I was 16, I could have stayed ignorant of the reason why everyone around me said the things they did, and acted the way they did. I, instead, chose to educate myself about their culture and understand where they were coming from, which in turn helped me have educated discussions about their culture versus mine. It helped open my eyes to how they lived, and in turn I was able to open their eyes to how I lived.
Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is ignorant and staying on the fringes and not having an opinion contributes to a lack of understanding and a worsening of the problem.
I take it you have female friends? If you're of middle-school or high-school age, as your previous posts suggest, they are just now entering a stage in their lives where sexism is going to start really impacting them (of course, it impacts us all from the time we are born because the clothes and toys and even books that our parents buy us tend to be marketed towards girls vs boys, but I'm not going in to that just now). In the teenage years, violence against girls escalates. Street harassment starts to happen. Old men leer at you, tell you to smile, place their hands up your skirts, masturbate in to the back of your coat.
You want to understand what women go through on a daily basis? Look at http://everydaysexism.com/ Watch this video:
And keep in mind this starts when we're around 12.