Timkins

Did you see (on ACA) the female academic who is proposing a Degree in Mothering? And Pauline Hanson's reply along the lines of: "It would be more appropriate to have a Degree in Commonsense". And have you heard the latest on Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day - to be replaced by "Special Persons' Day"?

All too much for this human unit!
Cheers
Kay

Kay, she is certainly doing her bit to try and bring about a backlash isn't she. It was almost comical except that she seemed to be serious.

The basic goal seemed to be to give mothering a higher status. No willingness that I saw to place any value on fathering. The kind of stuff that hurts women who genuinely want equality. Maybe a bit more focus on parenting and the idea might seem less like political tokenism and more like a desire to help. Personally I don't place a lot of faith in the academics (and family professionals) to have any idea about helping others. If what I have seen of those who work in the field over the last few years is anything to go by it is a very out of touch industry.

R0bert

Kalweb, Robert
I heard the woman who wanted the Degree in Mothering on the radio, and she said that she was a feminist, but not once did she mention fathers. Similar has been found in a considerable amount of feminist text, where many feminists do not recognise fathers as being parents, and many feminists also advocate the removal of fathers from families.

Such situations could be dismissed as being just plain silly, if the situation was not so serious. I have read that CSA has currently 1 million adults and 1 million children on it’s books. This means that at least 1 in 10 Australians are currently being directly affected by divorce and separation, and probably many more are being indirectly affected.

The overall effects on society must be substantial, as studies now routinely show that divorce and separation is mostly negative, not positive for women, and it must be even more so for children and also for men.

However the abolition of marriage was very much an early feminist principle, so many feminists cannot go back and revoke that principle I believe, but feel compelled to continue on with a doctrine or principle that generally does not work very well at all for women, men or children.

Timkins, agreed that there is a serious side to that kind of stupidity. The worry is that academics like that probably get to influence policy in other area's where they are not quite so obvious. I do not think that the rejection of marriage, the ignoring of the role of fathers etc is generally supported by most of the feminists who post on this site. As has been mentioned previously feminists come in a variety of flavours, some will be extremists, others sane and looking for fair outcomes (something I support).

I'm kind of hoping that through friendly dialog with the moderates I will be able to make them more aware of the consequences of some of the extremist activities. I also am interested in finding out where they think equality has not yet been achieved to help my understanding of the issues.

Cheers
R0bert

I think that no one should call themselves a feminist, without being able to give full account of what feminism is, otherwise that person may have been brainwashed by other feminists into calling themselves a feminist (like some type of cult).

Equality could be like a sea-saw. If someone gains rights or privileges in some area, the rights or privileges of someone else can go down. Therefore a balance has to be found, taking into account the economics, culture, technologies etc of that particular society.

However, as I have mentioned in previous posts, there are now professional feminists whose job, (or business), involves portraying the female gender as being perpetually oppressed and disadvantaged, no matter what the situation.. However those professional feminists will normally overlook any disadvantage that men might be experiencing, because they will not earn income from doing that. Therefore they will rarely be able to look at a situation objectively.

In areas such as law, government subsidies, education systems etc, the female gender now has many more rights and privileges then men, but most feminists (and many women), cannot objectively see this.

I would think that the past feminists policies have been 3 parts right, 7 parts wrong, and most of those policies are simply not sustainable. Some objective studies now highlight the negative impact that those policies have had on women and on society as whole.

So perhaps the next challenge for feminism, is to be truthful and objective

Reason

Limitations on this site means I can’t really do justice to this topic. I have been trying to determine some sort of trend over the past 10 years. In so far as equal opportunity for people – we’re in a rut.

Definitely an increased trend for men wanting to be active parents which our laws have yet to recognise. Laws that were necessary to protect mothers back when women were regarded more as chattel than as individuals are now discriminatory towards men who wish to be responsible fathers.

Socially, I mix with people in their late 30’s and 40’s. Men in this age group, generally, treat women as people. Whereas older men (not all) tend to see women as very different to them – limited to certain roles. The last time I dated anyone older than me – he wanted me to dress a certain way – more ‘feminine’ he said (I’m jeans ‘n Tshirt type woman). Younger men just accept me as I am.

Easier to see differences from 20 or 30 years ago, only 20 years ago that I would’ve had to seek my spouse’s approval for overseas travel even though separated.

It is easier for women to apply for and receive housing/business loans now. I would not have even been seriously considered for a loan as single woman back in the ’70’s. Probably didn’t earn enough anyway. When I started work over 30 years ago I earned 50% less per week than a male the same age, doing the same office work as I (after getting married I had to promise not to get pregnant!).

More things change, more they stay the same. I lost my last job due to not ‘playing the game’ with the boss (male 55 y.o.) and it’s the 21st century, am still in shock.

Still a way to go before people see each other as just people. This applies not only to sex but race, creed etc, we continue to judge the many by the actions of a few.

Will we achieve a true democracy? Not in my life time.

Cheers