Thursday, September 18, 2014

A Word on Equality

Every once in a while, some "good cop" feminist tries to make me understand my ignorant ways. Tells me that all they fight for is "equality", a few of the more intelligent ones direct me to Merriam-Webster for the definition and then go on about how there are so few women CEO's and what not. This kind irritates me the most. I'd rather have a radical killallmen hashtag types at my throat than one of these bludgeoning whatever little intelligence I have into oblivion. What they don't understand is that their concept of "equality" doesn't even start to make sense in the natural world. Equality, as a societal construct, simply corresponds to opportunity. Here's a little nugget that you'd do well to remember--Humans... Are... Not... Created... Equal. No man is born equal to another man, no woman is born equal to another woman, no man is born equal to another woman and vice-versa. Some are tall, some are short, some are geniuses, some are plain dumb, some can sing, some can dance, so on and so forth. For every woman who didn't become a CEO, there's probably the same or larger number of men who didn't make the cut either. But then that is logic, a language which seems to be spoken only by extraterrestrials these days. The only equality one should expect is equality in the eyes of the state, access to the same platforms and mechanisms. What you do with it or don't is your own problem, not anyone else's.

But these good cops blame the whole wide world because of the inequality in the "outcome". There's a reason why Serena Williams and Nadal don't play against each other, why Tania Sachdev and Vishy Anand don't play together, competitively. Men and women are inherently, irreconcilably, different. Sure, both can have representatives that can do amazing things atypically, but as a group, both have different aspirations, qualities, and drives. They excel at different things.The concept that because a certain gender, caste, religion or sect forms a certain percentage of any society, so they're entitled to the corresponding percentage based representations in all walks of life, is ignorant at best. Gender ideologues, reservation/quota supporters, communists..they all make this patently idiotic assumption. It's like a mob of angry parents from one community rioting outside a school saying why none of their children ever gets in the top 10, although they form 1/5th of the class. It's like primary school teachers going on dharna because they don't earn as much as chemical engineers.

It's called agency, a term which seems to be lost not just on feminists but the majority of the world's population. Your actions, you decisions..will have a reaction, will have a consequence. Take the case of the wage gap myth that most treat as gospel. This stupid theory has been debunked time and time again by various studies, but it'll never die. The myth of male privilege will never die. They just won't let it die. Be it laws, policies, anything and everything points in the exact opposite direction, but these myths endear because of these good cops.

The only privilege in the world is either political or economical. It probably affects around .0001% of people in the world that occupy the highest echelons of politics, business etc. It has nothing to do with gender. For the commoner, it's just usual life with all the problems that come with it. Women have problems and men have problems too. I don't suppose anyone thinks that the millions of rickshaw pullers in India are more privileged than Sonia Gandhi or any other Twitter Tumblr keyboard warrior just because they're male...? I saw something in my newsfeed the other day..someone shared an article from a women's magazine. The punchline went something like this "Indian girls--grow up, get married, have kids..why?". Hmmm..interesting, last time I checked it went something like this for men, and this goes for my own generation as well "Grow up, get a job, get a house, get married, have kids". A reasonable person would probably not see much of a difference. A buffoon somehow sees male privilege in there.

If anything, the problem one should have with that line of thought is the expectation bias. That line of thought is not about bestowing privileges, it's about giving responsibilities. Now, admittedly, that is one thing I vehemently disagree with, but then I don't see it changing. Men always have and always will be held responsible for everything. From family courts, to separation settlements, to child support, to psych counseling. My body my choice, your body but not your choice...yet you are still responsible for every single choice that has or hasn't been made. Heck, even feminist discourse runs along those line.

Of all the homeless in the world and this applies to India too, 80% are male, most pavement dwellers dying under the wheels of some drunk lunatic are male, close to a 100% dangerous and sub-human work related deaths are males. Yet, by some twisted sense of logic, reasonably intelligent looking big-bindi stalwarts proclaim "poverty only affects women" on national television. What's even more disturbing, is that this line of thought gets applauded by other reasonably intelligent looking people.

Whether it's genital mutilation, legal extortion, health, poverty or domestic violence (a phenomenon that's been proven by thousands of studies time and time again to be a gender neutral issue)...the only thing people are willing to give half the world, is apathy. "We hold up half the sky!" --yeah, and men are just raving lunatics trying to bring the other half down. UN spends billions, states spend billions in awareness programs, commissions, centers, shelter homes for one, but give a big fat thainga to the other.And the one thing, which is most depressing about this is the fact that the really important issues like child abuse and health always take a backseat. Some lump it together with women's ministries and commissions and we all know about "women and children first" don't we. Yeah, absolute balls...children first!!, pregnant women second..everyone else, get in line. Now that would be equality. Now of course, men are free to put their mothers, wives, daughters, sisters in front...and most probably would, but as a concept...does nobody find this absolute disregard for male life apalling?

Archaic laws and policies, due process is damned, special privileges for one and special punishments for the other. I don't really like the term feminazi...but it gets pretty close actually. Your rights end where my feelings start--that is pretty much the gist of the discourse. Nothing but saint-like behavior will make the cut for one, for the other...well..just don't kill anyone. But what do we know, this is equality. Err..no no...I'm sorry (I blame my male privilege for that grave oversight)..we still haven't achieved equality, much more needs to be done.