Originally posted by obiwillsAs for the chess debate, chess is a war game, war is something men are better at, not because they're more intelligent, but because they have a better mind for strategizing. Down through the centuries war has always been a man thing, not that there are no women who are good at it, just that women were usually at home taking care of the children and the old people, because if all of the women had gone to war as well as the men, you'd have infants and invalids left back home who'd all die from starvation.
Plus men have a mind for war, it's something that has been taught for generations. There have been some truly excellent female warriors such as the Amazon's but when it comes down to all the great battles in history 99 percent of them were masterminded by men. Men fight, women love. It is probably that compassion which keeps women out of war. It is easier for a man to kill another human being in the name of war than it is for a woman. Women have too much compassion, they might stop and question why, and while they're questioning it, get stabbed in the back by their opponent whom they were debating not killing.
Personally I think people just need to accept equality and move on, it is the older generations who are keeping this battle alive, not the younger.
This dead horse has been beat to the most rediculous extent, if men and women can't even get along, how can different races get along? How can different religions co-exist? If we are to achieve peace in this world we must learn to accept those around us and get over whatever issues we have with things. Women have achieved equality, they have the right to vote, right to work on any job, and the right to compete in any sport, even if it is in their own league. America no longer needs feminists, equality has been achieved, as it has in many countries in Europe, it's time to drop it and move on. Sure people are going to discriminate against women sometimes because they are prejudice, but they're the last of a dying breed, go back a generation or two from yourself and you'll be surprised how closed-minded the people who came before you really were. And one day your kids and grandkids will look at you and think of you as closed-minded. Step into the future. There's no longer a need for this debate, and feminists need to drop it. It is not essential to anyone's equality that some woman go out on a football field and get splattered all over the grass when she gets hit by some 350 pound quarterback. This is beyond rediculous, it's time feminists move to a country where they're needed and work there to get women the right to vote and the right to work. When the debate turns to sports it has reached the edge of sensibility.
It's simply rediculous to me that debates like this even happen. It's time for feminists to stop before they give a new generation of men a reason to hate women.
men fight, women love? women are too compassionate to go to war? I honestly doubt it, yet it's a die hard, sentimental idea, thrown in our faces again and again. yes, in the early wars men went to war and women stayed at home, looking after house and children, course they weren't physically as strong as the male enemies they'd meet on the battlefield, and because the norms of patriarchal society dictates that women love and men fight, and that women are naturally too compassionate to kill ( this of course only lasted till all the young male soldiers had died, then women were allowed to join in too - they were even expected to defy they're so called natural urge to avoid killing! whoa!)
what I'm hinting at here is that the overly compassionate nature of women, and the overly aggressive nature of men, isn't dictated by nature alone, but enforced by society. women do know how to kill, should they have to, and men do know how to be compassionate.
it isn't the older generation alone that keeps this 'battle' going, look at this thread! look at other threads than this, if you like, even go outside KMC and you'll still find young people of both sexes who think that the differences between the sexes are to the men's advantage. it's not something time alone will heal and make go away, it's socially conditioned, which is why I cannot believe all those people, you included, who are in such a hurry to dismiss feminists. you don't need them in America, you say? why, you've only just elected a president bend and determined to work against legal abortion. I'm also quite certain that you, just as any other country, have problems concerning lack of women in top positions, women earning less than men, women being beaten and raped by partners, etc. etc.
now, so much for the political part of feminism. apart from that, there's the theoretical part, concerning language, media, art and the like. sure, some female theorists I have a hard time agreeing with ( such as: men took over power because they stand up peeing! yeah, that's what happened! women were crawling around in the bushes and when we'd finally finished, the other team had made computers and raised tall, phallic buildings, leaving us nothing but kitchens!), but yet others study the way language affects us and our ideas about gender, as well as our perception of art, other medias, etc. etc. if the all buggered off to other countries, we'd loose out on that department.
all in all, what I'm getting at is basically this: I'm sick and tired of the image of the feminist as being the unshaved, bra-less man hater, who flashes the tattoos on her overly muscular arms and yells sexual insults after frightened men on the street. feminism is more than that and it's not about hating men.
I agree with you that some discussions do more damage than good, when it comes to the inter-gender peace, but I strongly disagree on the part where you give the feminists the entire blame. they don't always lead the way into ridiculous discussions, so do men. and they alone do not promote hating, so do men. either way, this again only proves that discussing gender and the relation between the two sexes are still much needed.