The White Man Will Rise Again
Phyllis Schlafly, the cocky-proclaimed "anti-feminist," speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Source: Photo by Gage Skidmore, creative commons license
The New York Times opinion section this weekend features a thoughtful piece past Jill Filipovic on the obstacles to feminism in today's America. Noting the remarkable but unfinished progress that women accept fabricated educationally and professionally, Filipovic articulates an cease goal that is not only feministic, but humanistic. Society, she argues, needs "more fluid gender roles that allow individuals to do what they're proficient at instead of what's socially prescribed." This means not only allowing women into realms traditionally reserved for men, but vice versa as well. "Men don't need more than masculine posturing. . . What they need is to make their own move toward gender equality, to interruption down the stereotypes and fetters of masculinity."
Few humanists would disagree with such statements – stubborn opposition to the idea of evolving male gender roles not just hinders progress, information technology also fuels reactionary phenomena such equally the Trump candidacy – just Filipovic'south thesis nevertheless misfires on one of import indicate. That is, it's hard to read the slice without concluding that men, and particularly white men, are the sole culprits. "The men feminism left backside pose a threat to the state as a whole," she warns. To such men, the diminishment of exclusive white male person predominance "has simply become intolerable." Alluding to the racism so prevalent amid Trump supporters, she notes that the GOP nominee "offers dislocated white men user-friendly scapegoats" such equally Muslims and Mexicans.
All of this is true, equally is Filipovic'southward statement that "[i]t'south tempting to write off people who refuse to evolve." But something is amiss here: at that place is little in the article to suggest that those who "decline to evolve" are any individuals other than white men. The slice is silent about a critically important fact: opposition to evolving gender roles stems not then much from the psyches of white men, but from the cultural sources that cut across demographics of sex, race, class, and ethnicity. Outdated cultural regime and traditions, with bourgeois faith leading the way, are the fiercest opponents of gender equality, and women propagate them as much every bit men.
Yes, white men have dominated American order historically, and as a category they are often more resistant to alter than others, merely it would be dangerously simplistic, and downright inaccurate, to frame the issue equally one of white men versus everyone else. White men accept long been on the receiving end of much privilege due to outdated thinking on gender roles, merely information technology would be erroneous to assume that they are the primary driving force behind such thinking.
The most shocking development of the 2016 presidential campaign is not the ascension of the Donald Trump, but the fact that fifty-fifty amongst women Trump has trailed Hillary Clinton by only almost 10 to 12 percentage points in national polls. Despite numerous revelations of Trump'south brazenly misogynistic views, nigh one-half the women polled are notwithstanding voting for him!
If you lot're trying to understand what kind of woman would support a Trump candidacy, look at 2 factors: organized religion and education. White evangelicals favored Trump in the poll by a margin of 79 to 15 per centum. Women without college degrees, meanwhile, supported Trump over Clinton nearly two to one, 61 to 32 percent.
Even more than on point on the issue of gender roles, another recent survey indicates that i in four women in America agree with this statement: "These days club seems to punish men for acting like men." Clearly there are of import cultural forces, beyond men lonely, feeding the resistance to change. Interestingly, about 43 percent of Republicans—and they're not all men—agree with that statement, compared to 26 percentage of Democrats.
Simply organized religion was an even bigger factor. The survey noted that white evangelical Protestants were almost in agreement with the statement (45 pct), whereas other religious categories and the religiously unaffiliated strongly disagreed. With an fifty-fifty wider gap, 64 pct of Republicans agree with the statement "Gild as a whole has go also soft and feminine," compared to only 28 percent of Democrats. The written report didn't break down that question co-ordinate to faith, but given the religious makeup of the parties nosotros tin depict some assumptions.
In that location'due south no question that white men have issues with gender roles, only they aren't lonely. The underlying problem is not so much men versus women, but progressive thinking versus defiant intransigence. That's non to advise that "progressive" men tin can truly empathize the experiences and difficulties women face in society—the well-nigh we tin say is that we realize that sexism is deeply rooted and dangerous in numerous ways, but we certainly don't live with information technology equally women do—just information technology highlights, accurately, that the existent resistance is entrenched in cultural forces that are not primarily defined by sex.
It's important to recognize the cultural foundations upon which resistance to gender equality rests, because no solution volition work if it is based on inaccurate assumptions. The recent death of Phyllis Schlafly, who once reportedly said, "Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human being nature," should remind us of this. Few would disagree that it was Schlafly, as much equally any man, who was responsible for blocking passage of the Equal Rights Subpoena. It'south noteworthy that, like so many anti-feminists, Schlafly also scorned "evolutionists"—that is, those who advocate for accurate science.
If society is to piece of work toward the humanistic and feministic goals of gender equality, the existent foe needs to be identified. Sure, men play a major part in the narrative, ofttimes the role of antagonist, only the real opponents are the cultural forces that fervently resist progress. As the numbers show, many of these intense and committed opponents of gender equality have roots firmly planted in conservative faith, and many of them are women. From a humanist viewpoint, open up criticism of such cultural forces is a key step to breaking downward barriers to progress.
Twitter: @ahadave
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Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201611/are-white-men-really-the-problem
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