The heartland of the original women’s liberation movement was the idea that different, is not less, and by association, different is not more. Over the last 50 years or so, this message has had a tendency to get lost with the cry for equal rights and treatment for men and women occasionally drowning in the misconception that ‘equal’ means ‘exactly the same’. It does not.
Men and women have basic physical, and some studies suggest,
psychological differences. We’re not so
different that this has to often be taken into consideration but there are
instances where the differences need to be shown a basic modicum of respect in order to be able to have equal
treatment. In short, men and women need adjustments to be made for the basic
differences of their gender.
Take for instance public restrooms. You wouldn’t think that in our day and age
that this is an area where equality is an issue, but it is one that in my
opinion overwhelmingly fails to account for the basic differences in men and
women. If you don’t know what I’m
talking about it’s this—the number of toilet stalls installed in a women’s
bathroom is normally decided based on the number of toilet stalls in a men’s
bathroom. This is ridiculous. Why?
Because men have penises and women don’t (obviously). Men’s restrooms are almost never crowded and
there’s always a queue at the ladies restrooms because engineers and town
planners seem to think that ‘equal’ means exactly the same treatment, ‘we gave
men three toilet stalls, so we’ll give women three toilet stalls—equal!’ The ‘equal’ conversation then continues this
way, ‘We should take into consideration the fact that men can pee standing up…
let’s add urinals to the men’s. Do we
need to do anything for the women? Nah, they can’t pee standing up so what
difference do urinals make?’ If you’ve ever been the woman wondering if she’s
actually going to make it into a stall before you pee yourself, you’ll be very
quick to argue that it makes a pretty big difference.
A man’s trip to pee, because of his basic gender difference,
is an ‘unzip and flip’ affair, then you shake twice and are on your way. Women don’t have that luxury, especially if they’re
wearing layers; therefore equal treatment would actually mean twice as many
stalls as men, not exactly the same.
This is not privilege, this is not special treatment; it is basic
consideration for gender anatomical difference and consideration and accommodation
for that is equal treatment.
Consider how awkward the universe would be if we took no
gender anatomy differences into consideration and treated everyone
the same:
‘Hey guys, when was the last time you had your monthly
period? Well don’t feel left out by the
ladies! Here’s your new EqualityPlus
Maxipad–for men!’
Or worse, what if the argument was, ‘As men and women are
going to be treated exactly the same (equally) despite their basic anatomical
differences, we’re eradicating all women’s period products. But don’t worry, we all still have toilet
paper. Just use a wad and now each month you can feel just like one of the boys!’
Right now there is a protest happening on Instagram, it is
called ‘Free the nipple’ and it is being done in the name of equality. Men are allowed to show their nipples on Instagram,
and women are not, and this is being called sexism. I’m here to suggest that it is not.
Men are required to keep their sexual anatomy covered on Instagram,
and so are women. We just have
anatomical differences, the most obvious at all times being, women have breasts
and men do not. The only reason Instagram
is drawing the line at ‘nipples’ is an attempt not to act archaic around
whether women show cleavage, or lower breast.
In effect, protesters are punishing Instagram for being liberal. It is a difficult position to draw lines
around because essentially the argument being presented by the #FreeTheNipple
campaign is ‘different is not less’ and the argument Instagram is making is ‘different
is actually more’. I’m not sure where the
line should be drawn on this particular kind of debate, particularly as I don’t
have breasts. But what I do know is
that no matter how well toned a pair of pectorals a man has, he will never get
the same level of reaction from showing them, as a woman does her breasts or
nipples. That’s not sexism, that’s sexual response—and we don’t choose ‘response’.
I wish it were otherwise, I would love the universe in where men were the sexually
pursued instead of the pursuer—if you’ve ever turned on any heterosexual adult movies you’ll see that male fantasy has one common theme…
Men all want to be the one thing that
women already are—desired.
But while women may appreciate a hard body, men are never
going to be able to have the same effect on women, which women have on men,
just by taking off our shirts.
If you want to protest whether you get to put your bosoms on
display, please, do it under freedom of speech, or self-expression. I’ll support your right to do so. But don’t do it under the banner of sexism or
inequality because it’s not and by calling it as such you are saying that men
and women don’t need their basic differences to be taken into consideration. Anyone who’s ever given birth or had to make
the soul crushing decision of requesting an abortion will tell you—there are
differences between men and women; differences significant enough that equal
treatment means respect for those differences, consideration for those
differences, not elimination of treatment that accounts for those differences. Different is not less, it is not more and
sometimes it requires additional measures in order to achieve equal treatment
of both genders.
No comments:
Post a comment