Manning Up or Wimping Out: Men Don’t Exist to Serve Women’s Desires
I think this article highlights the thing we’re seeing in the recent union protests in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Once you have something, you never want to give it back, even if doing so would be fairer and better for society. It’s human nature to want this. In the unions’ case, it is generous benefits negotiated in the past, some of which grow ever more in value as time passes. In the case of women, it is the protective nature of society, the historical benefits that existed while then being outweighed by their second class status.
During the last fifty years, as women made the case that they were just as competent as men to be doctors, lawyers, CEOs, and scientists, they didn’t simultaneously make the case that men were just as competent parents and child rearers. Many women want to keep these advantages, the assumed custody and alimony in divorce court, the disparity in judging spousal abuse, the “she said” being taken over “he said”. They want men to keep holding the door and picking up the check.
