Before starting I would just like to clarify that I am not
anti-feminist. I agree that women deserve equal pay, equal rights and equal
opportunity. The problem I have is with the way most go about fighting for
feminism. They so often make use of harsh double standards and contradictions
that I can’t not be bothered by the ignorance of what they say. One of the most common problems I see is that
women say, “Chivalry is dead,” see this one gets me angry. If I hold open the
door for a girl, she tells me that we are equal and she don’t need the door to
be held open; and if I don’t hold the door for her, she complains that I am not
courteous enough towards women (yes this has happened to me.) I am not saying
that all feminists act in this manner but there certainly are a decent handful
that do, Tannen seems to me to be one of these “on the fence” feminists. Based
on her essay it seems as if she wants the best of both sides and is just going
to switch back and forth for whatever is best for her. This is present when she says, "have her cake and eat it too" (Tannen 391) she tries to make this cliché work for her but it just solidifies her wavering views of feminism. Tannen also never speaks about how in languages like Spanish there is el and la to represent gender, but she does talk about how a "doctorette" (Tannen) is less powerful than a doctor. I suppose that all
people have this self-oriented drive, much like Chillingworth has demonstrated
in the Scarlet Letter, he is only out to satisfy his own need for revenge and
he cares for nothing else. Not really sure how I just related feminism to
Chillingworth but yeah, that happened.
I really like your ideas in this post. There are so many double standards when it comes to feminism, and you helped show how dumb they can be by giving specific examples. In addition, I also really liked your example about the Spanish gender pronouns.
ReplyDeleteYes! I completely agree. Feminists strive to be treated equally yet insist on receiving special treatment. I really liked your example of holding the door open- it clearly portrays this issue. Your usage of Tannen's exact quotes to show these double standards is very effective, especially since they are written by a feminist.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinions on feminism. Feminism is an important topic that has been addressed by many people, but feminism needs to be demonstrated correctly in order to work. To add on, extreme feminism hurts the movement more than it helps it, and this is portrayed in the picture posted above.
ReplyDeleteI think that the examples that you used have lots of truth to them. Things like holding open doors shouldn't be seen as anything more than common courtesy. There should be no expectation that someone will be there to get the door for you, male or female, and if someone does that person deserves to be thanked.
ReplyDeleteThe 21st century has muddy waters to navigate, and you have picked up on a few of them. It is interesting to note Tannen is a linguist, specifically analyzing the English language. Remember English has germanic and latin origins and is not developed with the influence of the romance languages (Spanish). I enjoyed your preface. It seems to give you more ethos, yes?
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point! My blog is very similar to what you are saying. I also find it sometimes annoying that women exhibit traits of feminism but also aggravation when a man tries to by chivalrous.Like make up your mind!
ReplyDeleteI agree although I see no problem for a person to hold a door for another person and its should be seen as a common courtesy. (PS:Nice wrapping up with Scarlet Letter)
ReplyDeleteI noted the poster, and the "can't hit a girl" thing makes me really mad. I feel like girls sometimes use their gender as an excuse to get away with violence. If a girl slaps a boy, people think it's hilarious and often congratulate the girl. However, if a boy slaps a girl, it's considered abusive and dangerous. I got into trouble in elementary school when a girl punched me multiple times, and then got upset when I shoved her away from me. I got into major trouble with both my teacher and the girl's teacher for defending myself in a manner that didn't hurt the girl at all. She didn't even get told not to punch people - because she was a girl, she got "Oh, poor baby, did that mean boy hurt you?"
ReplyDelete