A short rant on feminism

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T A T E
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

…and why we might want to refocus our political lenses.

I recently read an article that ranted about a female reporter getting kicked out of the white house for wearing a sleeveless dress.

Okay, so, that’s pretty dumb. I think most liberals would agree with that.

Why is it dumb? Because everyone should be allowed to wear what they want. Right?

The writer’s anger mostly centered around the ridiculousness she perceived in a woman being shunned for wearing what she understood to be acceptable professional attire for women during the summer months — sleeveless dresses and open-toed shoes were mentioned explicitly.

What she failed to address before moving on to her outrage over the president’s attempt to make pregnancy a pre-existing condition (which is a big fucking issue that I’ll address in a second) is why, exactly, this person wants so badly to defend her right to dress in business attire that makes her more attractive to men.

If the issue were really just about everyone covering up for business activities, everyone would be wearing suits, regardless of gender. The only reason women dress differently than men in the workplace is because when women were originally allowed into the modern workplace, it was in support roles for men, who generally preferred them to dress in a way that was easy to sexualize them (anyone ever seen Mad Men?).

So, fast forward about 50 years and we are here, in this dumpster fire of a presidential term, experiencing civil unrest, a changing economy, police violence, social confusion, and international panic over nuclear weapons (I mean, does ANYBODY remember the 60’s?).

And it is this moment that a feminist decides to raise her voice in defense of open-toed shoes.

I’m sorry to say it, but this is the reason I hate feminism. It’s missing the larger picture.

If she were able to take a step back, and not be reactionary to a singular incident (which, believe me, I do all the time), she might be able to extrapolate that her desires for “justice” or “equality” in this situation are merely her reactions to a “privilege” being taken away, which was given to her by the exact patriarchal system that is now taking it away. Any way you look at that, the system wins twice, once for exercising arbitrary control, and once for a woman looking stupid.

In that same vein, we can dissect the motives behind her outrage at the idea of pregnancy being considered a pre-existing condition.

I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS NOT A DISGUSTING AND INCORRECT WAY TO TREAT HUMANS.

I mean, all humans (including ones with penises!) emerge from a woman, so we have to take care of women in order to take care of all humans. which I think should be real simple to understand.

However, this extreme interest in the right to bear children seems to fall pretty squarely in line with the desire to dress in a way that is appealing to men. This woman’s interest in dressing how men want her to, and being available to bear their children don’t seem like radical politics to me. I want her to be able to do whatever she wants, but outrage that someone might be impeding your desire to serve their desire seems a misguided approach to the whole matter.

I have a side argument that maybe our society should be planning for a future in which automation requires a lot less of us to exist in order to run society (let’s just take a quick look at the rust belt to see proof of foreshadowing). In that case, we would want to intentionally have fewer children, and educate them to the literal best of our abilities. It might even make sense for our government to incentivize not having children, rather than punishing people who do. A society that focuses on women’s health for the sake of everyone’s, and that focuses intently on educating our youth would probably be a way more radical and feminist world to live in.

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