Final Polish

09 Dec. 2012

Burden of Gender

Dear Readers:

Discrimination against women has been a reality for thousands of years. Lack of birth control and lack of economic power due to limited opportunities for education have kept women in a subordinate position in society. Throughout history men have held the reins of power because men are more aggressive than women. They want control. From what I have observed, men want power, and men are bigger and stronger.  Biologically, men are more aggressive than women. In fact men commit 90% of violent crime.  The need for equality is always an important issue; consequently if there is inequality in society then you have a situation of the haves and the have nots. Furthermore one group has more power than the other.

Economic problems that were caused by the great recession have speeded up the process of the decline of male dominance in the western world.  The shift in power is affecting men’s ability to accept women in positions of power at work. Today you see women in high positions of power that you did not see fifty years ago. Change is bound to happen because women now have more access to higher education in the west.  The world is changing its view slowly towards women. However, this is not so true nonwestern countries. The laws in the west guarantee that men and women are equal.

According to the author, Reihan Salam, male dominance is beginning to decline in the West. However, the economic problems caused by the great recession have speeded up the process. “More than 80% of job losses in the United States since November have fallen on men, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor statistics.” At the same time, women are becoming more and more educated. Because of this shift in power men will be forced to accept women in positions of power at the work place. The collapse in the housing market put many lower skilled males like construction workers out of work. While jobs in construction and manufacturing won’t disappear, they will make up a smaller percentage of the economy. Western countries are somewhat more open to allow women into positions of power. Never the less this is not the case in most third world countries like Asia, Russia, and the Middle East. With this great recession women have suffered more than men because they tend to get paid less and have less economic control.

In the past, for example, in the Great Depression men wanted to be the breadwinners and women were kept out of the work force. In my opinion, because of the industrialization of the world there are more jobs available. In turn there are more appliances available to women to make their lives easier. We have ovens, stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, and mass manufacturing of clothing. All of the wars in the nineteen hundreds caused women to pick up the slack and work outside of the home. Then in 1920 women were first allowed to vote here in the United States of America.

Women have gradually become more educated. Indeed, more women graduate from college than do men. Furthermore, more opportunities have opened up to them. With more financial instability all over the world, combined with women’s greater access to education, change is bound to happen. These changes are happening more quickly in the western world. Even so, change is beginning to happen like in India. People are beginning to question the old concepts of a woman’s place in society. Today it is just as likely that the woman is the bread winner. Never the less some men will embrace women as equals while others will resist change.

I believe that the movement towards women’s equality will take place at a much slower rate in third world countries. There are many countries in which the female has been in a subordinate position for thousands of years. Today’s battlefield will take place culturally. Therefore in non-western countries this will take a long time because of the weight of tradition. The more educated that men and women become the more that they will realize that they are equal in every way. As women become more financially powerful this will decrease the burden on men economically. If men don’t have to carry women around economically there will be less friction between the sexes.

From what I have observed, the world is changing its view towards women. There are many factors including gender, race, and religion that determine people’s view towards gender. Here in America men and women are treated as equals according to our constitution and laws. How are people equalized in our society? How is it enforced? Now men and women have the right to vote.  Men and women can both be in the military, and women are now allowed to fight and be in danger. Today’s laws apply both equally to men and women. Today’s laws apply to the abled and disabled.  If you commit murder you will get the same sentence whether you can walk, or if you can’t walk, whether you can hear, or can’t hear, and if you’re blind or not blind.  This is because our constitution insures that people are treated equally. 

On a biological level, males are more aggressive than females.  Therefore, I think there will always be friction between the sexes. However, the issue of empowerment of women is critical for society to go to the next level. This will happen to the extent that women become educated.  The human race has been around for two million years. However, civilizations have been around for only 10 to 11 thousand years. Third world countries are called third world countries for a reason. This is because they are backwards in many ways and their belief systems are very primitive. The empowerment of women is critical for civilization to evolve to a higher level.

In the story of “Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, written by Jean Kilbourne the author talks about sex in advertising. Kilborne states “We believe we are not affected by these images, but most of us experience visceral shock when we pay conscious attention to them. Could they be any less shocking to us on an unconscious level.” I agree with the author that provocative images are shocking on a conscious and on an unconscious level. The reason that business has provocative advertising is because they are trying to pitch a sale. Therefore, they use seductive images and words in the media because sex sells.

Upon consideration, it is important that women become educated and take care of themselves so that they don’t find themselves in the position of being victimized. Today certain ads, television shows, and movies make women out to be objects. Also pornography and music videos exploit women and turn them into objects. Kilbourne states “Although these ads are often funny. It is never a good thing for human beings to be objectified.” It is shocking to see men against women violent ads. Kilbourne exhibits an ad showing a man holding a gun to a woman’s head above this ad it says bitch. This ad is questionable.  It seems like companies will do anything to boost sales.

There is a big difference in how men and women are treated. Women are portrayed as seductive. Women are made vulnerable because they are looked on as sexual objects. There is more violence today because their bodies are being sexualized. Sad to say there is a lot of violence against women these days. Today’s society has an enormous appetite for sex.

Then Kilbourne talks about sexualization of girls and boys under the age of 17.  Men in Japan are exploiting school girl fantasies; they are threatened by how smart and powerful women are. This is why education is important for the young so that way they are not exploited. There is a picture of a model posing naked on a couch while she was portrayed to look 12 even though she was 20. Kate Moss said about this Calvin Klein ad “I look twelve.”  Kate Moss is admitting that this ad was not normal. What this ad did was boost sales for Calvin Klein even though it was inappropriate.

Children are harassing each other in and out of school. Words are not harmless since they can cause permanent damage and leave lifelong scars. Yet the teasing and harassment that our parents went through when they were in school is different than what we went through, and different than what teens are going through today. “A 1993 report by the American Association of University Women found that 76 percent of female students in grades eight to eleven and 56 percent of male students said they had been sexually harassed in school. In my opinion the person that you were when you were young has a lot to do with who you are now. To a certain extent these issues have to do with the desire to dominate and control. Whereas men are motivated by power, women are motivated to bond into love. Nevertheless, society is changing to the point where women worldwide are beginning to educate themselves.

Yours Truly; Adrian Martino