Does Gender Matter? – 5min

If you’ve been on social media lately you’ve probably heard about the man from Google who just got fired for an “anti-diversity manifesto.”

If you watch the main stream media you’re probably convinced that he didn’t site his sources, his sources were mostly Wikipedia, and that his entire goal was to make it look like men are better than women.

Or you could read the document. He does say that men are better at women for some things, but he also said that women are better at some things then men, and that if you want to get the most out of your employees you’ll take into account these differences so that you can get the best people into the best jobs, and they will work their best.

The biggest argument against this manifesto I’ve seen is “men and women are the same” from many people, including Laci Green who was pretty blatant about it. You shouldn’t use stereotype to judge people, they say.

Alright, then here is my question about that. Does gender matter? Is there a difference between men and women? Because I’ve seen plenty of feminists say that men are more violent, and men are rapists. If that is true then would the opposite also be true? That women are less violent and less likely to attack? That’s not called a stereotype (and it isn’t true of course, men aren’t more violent than women they just happen to have higher incidents of different kinds of violence for each gender. And men fail to report it more often.)

Regardless, if gender isn’t important, if there is no difference between men and women, then why are we pushing for transgender rights? Why do we call people male or female for anything other than reproductive purposes? Why are there genders at all?

But maybe that’s where they are going with this argument…

And that’s my five.

 

PS, these five minute writes don’t give a lot of time to go in depth on a subject, just hit the highlights most of the time. But the question is still a valid one. I do want to say that I do believe there is a difference between men and women (with some over lap of course) and that there are specific things that most men and most women do. And 51% is most. But regardless of gender, individuals learn and work better in different ways, so increasing avenues in a work place for those different mentalities to be more comfortable in a space isn’t a bad thing.

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5min – Not this!

I woke  up this morning and turned on Twitter to help wake up my brain. It’s an easy enough thing, read a few lines, laugh at some cut gifs, and slowly wake up in the morning.

What I see is a raging debate over abortion. Should we find alternatives? Should we even be debating it? Abortion is just a pill now guys!

Okay, here’s my take on it…Abortion is sometimes necessary, but should be treated with respect, not used as a birth control option. But it should definitely be there for molestation, medical problems, rape, or any number of other things that can just go wrong. And for the record, a pill (morning after pill) is not an abortion, it’s just making sure you don’t get pregnant in the first place. Most people who are talking about abortion are not talking about the pill anymore. The pill is a normal part of life.

So, of course, there is a number of people saying “Why don’t men stop getting all up in our biz”…my first thing to do is go search “How to get pregnant without…” and the results for secretly getting pregnant without a boyfriend, husband, or whatever finding out are INSANE!

And that, dear people, is why it should be at least a little bit talked about with a significant other. If men can be forced to pay child support for the next 18+ years to a woman he just met at a bar and had sex with for a night maybe there should be some way of helping him, too.

Oh, but the woman carries the child, etc. etc. Ya, and the woman could also make him put on a condom, take birth control, go get the morning after pill for herself, or any number of other ways she can keep herself from being pregnant. Not to mention page after page after page of women actively trying to get pregnant without their SO finding out, some of them specifically saying “he doesn’t want a child, but I do.”

Just saying, if personal responsibility for both sexes was enforced we would no longer be having a debate over abortion, because they wouldn’t be needed except in very rare cases. What woman is going to trick her boyfriend into getting her pregnant if she is guaranteed not to get child support for doing it?

 

I have several friends who have gone through abortions, and all of them have been emotionally and mentally hurt to various degrees, by the whole thing. It wasn’t as easy as people tried to tell them. It wasn’t “I do this and never think about it again.” They definitely think about it, and it definitely bothers them, some more so than others, though they all agree it was for the better. But from one having to get an abortion because she was raped at 13, to another having to choose between an accidental pregnancy (that they took precautions for) and the rest of her life, I can see why they did it. But I wish we would stop trying to convince people that there is no emotional side effect to this decision. Maybe some people have none, but that’s not necessarily normal.

And, again, I’m talking about people who go in to have a child surgically removed, not a morning after pill. They are two separate things.

Lastly, can we stop pretending that the only people against abortion are men? There are MILLIONS of women who are against it, too. And just because they don’t support other women in their right to just go in and have an abortion whenever they feel like it doesn’t mean their beliefs are invalid. That they aren’t “feminist” enough. No, they all have reasons to believe this way. Some of them had abortions and feel so guilty about it that they never want anyone else to go through it.

But, FFS, can we just maybe start pushing personal responsibility, and giving men rights to their children as well, so we can stop debating this f*ing thing?

And that was way over my 5 this morning.