We have the same dealio here in the states. Child pornography created without using actual children is legal (Except in Illinois, where its not currently legal, but probably will be again when the law works its way through the courts).
Interestingly, people don’t go nuts over that issue here–Probably because its so obviously protected speech. Or possibly because Calvin Kline and A&F control the country.
Those are quite definitely links, alright. I’m just not sure what you are trying to prove with them. The first is a news article about a new law against a type of abortion that constitutes less than 1/3 of one percent of all abortions ( it’s not a very smart or well thought out bill, but that’s neither here nor there.), The second one is nothing more than one person’s opinions, and says as much ( along with a “statement of beliefs” that include this gem:
So, most women are not happy being women. News to me out here in the real world ) The last article is a study on gender equity pay scales that I would say is of limited use because it focuses too tightly on one segment of only two industries ( communications and entertainment, and only the top 1 % of all the people in those industries ). It even mentions and then totally ignores that the wage gap has shrunk among people not in the top 1% and also in such professions as health service and education, AFAICT because acknowledging this would weaken the case they are trying to build, which seems to be that isn’t it ironic that entertainment drove some kind of gender issue agenda ( Really, it dosen’t make much sense ) and yet it’s own top 1% of executives are overwealmingly male, or someting like that.
Perhaps if you told me what I was supposed to get out of those links it might help me understand your point.
I don’t think I’m educated enough on the subject to address your concerns, but I do think you’re missing the point of looking only at the top 1%. Those are the people in power, and if mostly (white, middle-class) men are in power, than other populations are cut off from that power.
I also disagree that narrowing the gap in non-managerial work weakens the case. Isn’t that a victory for women? Do you think it would have happened if women had not complained that the disparity was unfair?
Well, just the other day I was rejected for a job because I am a woman. Seems like pretty damning evidence.
There is more though. 10-15% of women have never had an orgasm. Many women do not reach orgasm regularly. The majority of women describe their genitals as “ugly”. Many have never looked at them at all. Half of all women are unhappy with their first sexual experience (compared to 16% of men). Rape is an everyday fear for women. Sexual abuse is a shockingly common. I think this is a pretty big fucking problem. I know sex can be a fun, orgasmic, wonderful experience….perhaps one of the better things about being human. So why are legions of women stuck with bad sex and why is this considered okay?
If sex isn’t enough, there is the government. Abortion is a big deal, and every day we are losing ground. Have you ever sat down and considered how downright freaky it is that your wife, mother, sister etc. can lose legal control over their very own body? That should they get pregnant, the fetus may take precedence over their health and wishes? In essence, the people who are very influential in the government are working very hard to the ability to take over my body for nine months at a time… Yeah. That’s a problem.
Then there are jobs. Why is a female president still inconceivable, when even freaking Muslim countries have figured out that women can be statesmen? Sure, more women are making it to college. But you still don’t find many of them in the fields that command power. As a film student, I was usually one of two or three women in my classes. Except my documentary class (which is a less powerful, less prestigious, less potentially money-making class of film) which was bursting with girls. WHY DID I GET REJECTED FROM A JOB I NEEDED BECAUSE OF MY GENTIALS?
Finally, there are little things. Did you know I cannot walk three blocks down the street to buy a burrito without some asshole yelling some harassing comment out of his car window? Why do many insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control pills? Why did I fill out a job application that asked my height and weight? Why will nobody acknowledge that childcare is a pretty important subject? Why is it still unprofessional to wear pants but not wear make-up to a job interview? And good lord don’t let me get into the problems that my transgendered friends deal with. That’s a whole new can of worms but it still points the fact that America has some pretty fucking gaping problems with gender.
Feminism is not about blaming the man for anything. It is about examining how gender is constructed in society and what that means in terms of the real world. Just because you try not to see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. It’s not about being powerless, it’s about not being consistently screwed over. There is no single enemy, just a bunch of factors that need to be routed out and changed. I envision a world of good sex, fulfilling jobs and the ability to walk to the store without being yelled at, harassed or raped for me and my sisters, and everyone else for that matter. And if I want that I need to look at why this is happening, and what can be done to stop it. No, I am not going to turn off my brain and pretend like everything is A-OK.
What job? How do you know it was because you are female? Have you filed a complaint with the EEOC yet? Why not?
How does your allegedly being rejected for one job based on your sex translate into “women are powerless”? How does a percentage of women not having regular orgasms translate into “women are powerless”?
Were you or any other woman informed by the school that you were not allowed to enroll in any class into which a man was allowed to enroll? Did you ask the “girls” in your documentary classes why they were not in your other classes, and did they say it was because “women are powerless”?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a no-brainer that you and every woman (and man) should be able to walk down the street without fear of being harassed or assaulted or raped but the things you’re citing to support your “women are powerless” don’t IMHO support them. Is there a power imbalance between men and women in America? Definitely. Does that mean women are without power as a class? No.
This just in: President Bush Encourages Californians to Wax Automobiles to Bring About Fire-quashing Deluge.
even sven, are you seriously offering this as evidence of women being powerless in today’s society?
Yeesh.
Remember back in the 1980’s, when the Meese Commission looked at more porn than any group of government consultants in history, then reported that looking at porn leads to being a sex criminal?
John Ashcroft makes me miss Ed Meese.
Sven,
What Otto said.
Why are you so bitter about being a woman? I ask for proof and get anecdotes and you venting your spleen. I am trying to see your POV here, but you’re not helping me see it.
Did you read all of sven’s post or just the parts you wanted to see? I guess you missed this part:
Sure I saw it. What I didn’t see was any evidence that women, as a whole, are being constantly screwed over. Absent that, what we have left is a rant. A rant is a fine thing, but it’s not evidence that women are always being screwed over.
I read her post. In response to
her response started with
Evidence of what? The idea that “women are powerless.” If she is in fact offering it, along with her orgasm statistics and her lack of female classmates in film school and the rest as evidence of how women are “being consistently screwed over,” then my questions remain the same. How do the things she mentioned indicate that women in general are “constistently screwed over”?
Well, for every woman stuck with bad sex, there is a man stuck with bad sex as well - why is this considered okay?
adam yax, a lot the reason women have bad sex is because they’re having sex with a man who is perfectly happy being on the other side of what is bad sex for the woman. They just don’t care. The same sex act can be bad for the woman but perfectly acceptable to the man.
Lesbian relationships are not immune to this, but the way most women have sex with one another (in my experience) is more focused on bringing your partner to orgasm, and less on bringing yourself. Most men seem to quit once they come. That business about multiple orgasms probably plays into this. 
Aside from the man bashing ( and suprisingly there’s not pitch for the perfection of TV love ), you say lots of women are sleeping with men who are lousy lays. I can buy that. What does that have to do with what we’ve been talking about? How does a poor fuck contribute to any of the following:
Instutionalized sexism
Keeping women “powerless”
Constantly “screwing over” women in general ( beyond the obvious )
Please explain it to me.
Oh, and sven, I’m still waiting for details of how that EEOC complaint you filed is going. Since you were not offered a job simply because of your sex, you have a good case. I hope you nail the bastards.
Weirddave, I was just addressing adam yax’s apparent surprise that men would tolerate having bad sex all the time. To tie it back to the “larger issues” that you apparently believe that I’m required to discuss, it’s “considered OK” because the man is getting what he wants, and what the woman wants is not important. I believe that falls under both institionalized sexism and constantly screwing over women in general (both literally and figuratively). Your mileage will probably vary.
A male individual being bad at sex is a symptom of institionalized sexism? I had no idea. How about the female who settles for the bad sex, does that contribute to the problem at all?
Weirddave, the institutionalized sexism is in teaching the man that it’s not a problem that his sex partner doesn’t enjoy having sex with him.
Women settle for bad sex because by the time they discover that their partner is incapable of good sex, they are stuck with that partner. Leaving him threatens her security, plus if she does leave him and look for another, she is a “slut” deserving of nothing at all.
Wow! I must be God’s gift to feminism then :). Women come have sex with me, together we’ll do battle to the evils of institionalized sexism!
Emmm….
Men settle for partners that are not very good at sex either, for a myriad of reasons-love, responsibility, desire for companionship, etc…, so that is what I would term a human failing, not one limited to women only.
As to the rest of it…I’m sorry, but I see a myriad of women every day who refuse to allow others-society, family or “men”- to define those things for them, and they don’t suffer in any way for it, which pretty much puts paid to the notion that such things are institutionalized. In most cases it is what I would define as a “choice”. Saying that sexism exists is one thing, that it can be a problem is another, (both of which I would agree with, BTW) but implying that women have no choice but to be bound by it is an order of magnitude beyond that, and in my experience that’s not the case anymore.