Your very own feminist thread.

"What is particularly disturbing is that the attacks appear to have been organized. Around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women."

I am definitely a feminist, and I just do not comprehend how the term ever came to have a derogatory connotation.

Does answering with a "solid NO" mean a solid NO???...

That's what my buddy told me it stands for, and if you use it with that meaning in mind it's not SO bad, eh?

On the bus or train, I offer my seat to anyone who seems to have some frailty, a clearly pregnant lady, or young children. With the kids, I say "Would you like a seat for the little one?" and that give the guardian the option of taking the seat and having their charge sit on their lap, or allow the child the seat. Little kids can be tired too, and they usually run it out hard at the playground, so if they are tired, they really are happy to sit down. But mostly, on the subway, the kids are excited to be able to kneel on the seat with their face looking out the window watching the tunnel walls/oncoming trains. It makes you feel pretty good to give up that seat and see the kid so happy they get to have that special view.

Being a "Feminist" these days goes way beyond just being a single considerate human woman!

Second, the point of feminism is equality.

Feminism has a branding problem. It's about as sensible as masculinism. I'm not sure what other sexisms exist besides masculinism and feminism but I'm not a supporter.
We already have a great term called 'equality'. I suggest that activists use that term if they want to include men.
I called myself a feminist when I was young and less experienced. I won't embrace the term. Sorry. The term is divisive.

There WAS, a lack of equality, particularly in the workplace, when the term was coined. Women have more than made up for that.

The draft is a perfect litmus test for equality. Combat, and the drive to kill, destroy, and conquer, highlights the inequalities between men and women better than just about anything.

I agree they should have equal rights, but special privileges?

Like what?

And what special privileges do men have?

Am I missing out on something?

"Why do women fake orgasms?"

I agree they should have equal rights, but special privileges?

Like what?

And what special privileges do men have?

Am I missing out on something?

Hddj, I'm plenty familiar with women's issues, thanks : )

My point that feminism has an image problem is for feminists to understand where their message is missing it's mark.

What special privileges to accommodate their issues should women have that they don't already have?

The 'Woman Tax': How Gendered Pricing Costs Women Almost $1,400 A Year

In 2010, Consumer Reports found that equivalent products in a drugstore, like deodorant or shampoo, cost more if they were marketed to women. They asked the manufacturers why and almost across the board, the companies said it was more expensive to manufacture products for women.

“They are completely different formulations,” said one spokesperson of two antiperspirants with the exact same percentages of the exact same ingredients. Representatives of the offending companies also cited differences in packaging and foaming action (which women apparently requested) as reasons for disparate pricing.

A study from the University of Central Florida drew similar conclusions. It found that on average, women’s deodorants were priced 30 cents higher than men’s, when “the only discernible difference was scent.” It’s a similar case for most products marketed to women, such as razors and shampoo, which smell different and look different but at the end of the day serve the same purpose as scent-less, glitter-less versions. (Learn how to save on beauty products in our Priceless Style Bootcamp.)

On Anything Imported

Part of the reason this happens is because products for women cost more from the get-go, starting when they enter the United States. Marie Claire tells the story of a trade lawyer named Michael Cone, who was sifting through the list of tariffs (fees the U.S. charges to import goods from other countries) and noticed something incredible: The tariffs differed across gender lines.

For example, men’s sneakers were taxed at 8.5%, while women’s were taxed at 10%. Not every garment tariff he discovered was in favor of men, but he did find that women were susceptible to higher taxes on those goods imported to the U.S. at the highest volume. While there is no legal loophole or ostensible reason for the discrepancy, Marie Claire points out that there’s a history of bias in tariffs–before the Civil War, it cost less to import cheap wool so slaveowners could clothe their slaves. At this point, inequality in tariffs is just the way it has always been.

Cone gathered together over 100 companies to join him in the discrimination lawsuit he brought against the U.S. government, promising millions of dollars of unconstitutional fees if they won. The suit is currently pending.

… And at the Doctor’s Office

And then there’s health insurance. Here’s a startling fact: A nonsmoking woman often pays a higher premium than a smoking man. Women pay a total $1 billion more on annual health care costs than men, according to the National Women’s Law Center. The discrepancy is called gender rating, and in states that haven’t banned it, 92% of the top insurance plans charge women more.

Insurance companies say that women pay more because they’re more expensive customers who utilize more health services. While there are the obvious reasons (there is no male equivalent to the gynecologist, and women are the only ones seeing doctors when pregnant), most plans that discriminate, according to new research from the National Women’s Law Center, don’t cover maternity services.

There is also the fact that healthy men don’t go to doctors like healthy women. Research consistently proves this: A Louis Harris and Associates survey of over 4,000 men showed that not only did three times more men than women avoid the doctor in the previous year, but that a third of those men surveyed had no regular physician. A 2011 survey from Esquire Magazine found similar results.

Therefore, women demand more from health insurance … and pay for it.

Craig Fry wrote
And they should have special women privileges, why not?
Their life should be just as privileged as us white males have.

Women now have choices. They can be married, not married, have a job, not have a job, be married with children, unmarried with children. Men have the same choice we've always had: work, or prison.
Tim Allen

How do percentages of women supported by their husbands or boyfriends look compared to the opposite?

Definitely skewed to males being supported if we're to believe all those cracks about finding some chick at Curry to live off of while spending seasons in Yosemite BITD

There are lots and lots of cases of women bringing false charges of abuse and rape against men and succeeding in convicting them

Sorry but women abound for men pleasure.. Do ur job suck a nut.

The wage inequality between men and women in the oral sex trade are a huge problem

If it makes you feel any better, happy, I would have ...

I wasn't really talking to you happy

I think dragging crimes against women into it ... fouls the philosophical debate on feminism.

ps - a great example of something I believe is relegated to being 'woman thing' is that it's ALWAYS funny seeing a man suffering due to trauma to their balls et al. I'm giggling right now just thinking of it!

I wasn't really talking to you, happy, but to pyro. Just sayin' there are different kinds of sex crimes against men.

I personally had a female tenant threaten to charge me with sexual harassment in the context of a disagreement over her security deposit. Never touched her or said anything inappropriate to her, and she came to the door nearly naked 3 times during her 6 mo tenancy, when she knew it was me.

when she knew it was me

pyro, are you drunk again?

"I never do anything that I'm aware of which denies any woman equal rights, and I never see any other men deny women equal rights..."

Since then, I have never thought "Oh no, no me!" when I read the upsets that black people in the US protest. From my ivory tower, I can't see clearly, no matter how good I believe my eyesight is.

Anyone can be a victim.

I LOVE playing with guys.

The only ones who could be threatened by the "demand" of equal treatment are those who benefit from the current unequal state of affairs or are so utterly clueless that they are unaware that special treatment exists to their benefit.

why even have male/female bathrooms if you people no longer want the gender to mean anything?

But you have to put the seat down when you're finished, hoss.

a 5 member board of which 2 are female, and 3 are male...
...if you look at the the Livermore school system in general, 80% of the administration, staff and support are women.

Issues of the cost of K-12 education are essentially related to the salaries that the teachers make, so it is interesting to see that women are the ones most effected by low teacher salaries, and criticisms of teaching competence, and accountability.

While this important societal role, teaching the children, falls predominantly to women (at least in Livermore) one wonders at the societal support for this important profession. And further, we can ask the question, why aren't there more men in this profession?

My suspicion is that men can make a higher salary in other jobs.

HighDesertDJ: Why Americans think we should both pay teachers poorly and then also treat them poorly is beyond me.

If one looks at other kinds of organizations or industries, what people are paid does not predict performance very well—unless particular kinds of people work in sales.

Canada isn't outraged