Comments on: I Am Woman, Hear Me Blog

By: Jan Scott Nelson

Jan Scott Nelson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:26:11 +0000

Yep, you’re right. Missing words in my post – it should have read ‘we weren’t all seen as equal’.
Jan Scott Nelson´s last blog ..A wonderful year ahead

By: --Deb

--Deb — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:11:43 +0000

My feeling was always that we WERE equal, we just weren’t being treated that way. But then, I’ve never been a rock-the-boat kind of person, either.
–Deb´s last blog ..Great Way to End the Year

By: Jan Scott Nelson

Jan Scott Nelson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:08:45 +0000

Hi Deb, I absolutely take your point. I guess mine was that we weren’t all equal, and we knew it, so it redressed the balance a little. Back in the day it felt like a radical and empowering thing to have a place where women’s experience was heard. Stregnth in togtherness and all that stuff. Now, I trust, it is less necessary. Though I remain slightly dubious.
Jan Scott Nelson´s last blog ..It’s amazing what you find inside an anemone!

By: --Deb

--Deb — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:58:41 +0000

@Jan–yes, the pink and ruffly comment WAS tongue in cheek. I was in high school and college during the 80s, though, and it gives a skewed view of things … since I wasn’t yet in the workplace, I couldn’t really see for myself how equal or not-equal the men/women things were, but I believed my teachers when they said that they SHOULD be equal, and that gender shouldn’t put limits on what you could accomplish. And so I didn’t see the point of Women’s Studies (though I actually DO knit).

I mean, I understood the consciousness-raising point of them, but if we were all equal, why would we need a whole, separate department? To me that was like saying, “We like pink and blue equally, but today, we’re going to concentrate on making everything pink.” If equality was the point, why focus on only one side? Yes, I got that so much of what we were studying was stuck with the old-white-male syndrome, but didn’t see how shifting allll the way over to the other side of the spectrum would really help–especially if feminists then only talked to other feminists.

Of course, once out in the real world, I did see prejudicial behaviors based on gender, and no, never thought it was fair, but I tend to think that letting our differences divide us into all these separate, politically-correct groups (men, women, black, white, Christian, Jew, etc) who feel misunderstood or unappreciated, we lose track of the things we all, as humans, have in common.

Or, something like that! (grin)
–Deb´s last blog ..Great Way to End the Year

By: Jan Scott Nelson

Jan Scott Nelson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:40:45 +0000

Great discussion here.
Can I just say, at a slight tangent, that from my experience Women’s Studies is/was not remotely ‘pink’ or ‘ruffly’. LOL.:)
In truth it is at its most basic level, a means of ensuring that women’s experience is acknowledged and accepted into academia. Prior to the 1970s/1980s women’s experience was invisible in academic terms. It is a cross-discipline field (does that make sense?) which has served a vital role in raising women’s and men’s consciousness. That is quite old-fashioned language I know.
We (students/teachers of WS) used to get sideways swipes about ‘knitting’ and ‘domestic chores’ and I’d be sad to think this attitude still prevailed. I think your comment is probably a tongue in cheek one, so I hope you don’t mind me just sticking my head above the wall and making sure no one took it too seriously.
I love your blog by the way. Warm wishes for 2010. Jan
Jan Scott Nelson´s last blog ..A wonderful year ahead

By: --Deb

--Deb — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:41:12 +0000

I know discrimination happens, and it saddens me … but I can see it more easily in, say, the medical profession when you’re dealing with people who’ve grown up with that old stereotype/bias who might still firmly believe that men are better than women at certain kinds of work. But … on the internet? For WRITING? I still don’t get that. A woman can write a webpage just as well as a man can–it only depends on the writer, not the gender. I don’t see how gender affects that at all–even if you’re an old-school mysogynist who thinks women can’t do anything but cook and clean house (shudder).
–Deb´s last blog ..Do You Have A Lucky Charm?

By: Lorette

Lorette — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:33:23 +0000

Depressing indeed. It happens in the medical field as well. As recently as five or six years ago, I had to make a bit of a scene where I worked, where employed women physicians were making substantially less than employed male physicians doing exactly the same work. I think there is still definite bias towards thinking that women aren’t “worth” as much, since maybe we won’t put in the hours due to family commitments etc. I also definitely think that women aren’t as good at asking for what we deserve. Men of my generation (born in the 50′s) are raised on that, and absolutely do not hesitate to demand what they think they should get. Women are under more societal pressure to play nice and get along. I hope that’s changing with the next generation.
Lorette´s last blog ..Knitted Christmas Gifts

By: Walter

Walter — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:08:11 +0000

Discrimination has always been the predilections of humans. Unless we are made aware of our tendency to discriminate, we cannot make amends; and unless there’s someone like you who voices your rights, it will be left unchallenged.

By: --Deb

--Deb — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:49:32 +0000

Discrimination is one of my pet peeves–if something so serious can be categorized as a peeve–right up there with generalizations on what any group of people are “like.” In an ideal world, people are judged by their own merits, as they should be. It just saddens me that this is not the case … not even behind the anonymity of the internet.

By: Meryl K Evans

Meryl K Evans — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:30:57 +0000

Men with Pens uses a “male” theme with its bullets and all that. Now, what if James had set up the current blog and used her female identity and change the name to something else. The content along should be more than enough to make it as successful as it is under the “male” disguise.

I just don’t get it. I thought we made enough advances that gender bias would not be a “subconscious” thing as that’s the only thing I can think of that caused this to happen and online, no less.
Meryl K Evans´s last blog ..50+ Writer Uses for Facebook