Replace Men with Women
A meme recently crossed my feed that showed nine men who had voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The meme showed the nine folks who replaced them in the recent election. Of these latter nine seven are women. I decided to quip "I'm open to replacing all men in authority with women. Any women." I got some responses contending with me. One friend suggested I exclude Betsy DeVos. Another suggested men of color.
I started to think about these responses. And I recalled two pieces I read in the Washington Post. One was an opinion piece on women of color by Sherrilyn Ifill (Ifill is the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund). Her comment:
I have been thinking about ... over the past few days as I’ve watched President Trump attack black female journalists. Trump’s vicious and public insults of black female professionals should remind us that black women have long had to fight for respect and dignity and against demeaning and ugly stereotypes in the public space.
will give you a sense of what the piece is about. The other piece was by Courtland Milloy (Courtland is a columnist with the Post). He asks an interesting question:
Why aren’t more black men outraged into action when President Trump insults black women?
I urge you to read both articles. But I don't think the problems these folks discuss are limited to black women (though I would agree black women get more of this nastiness). This is why I made the quip I did. The responses to that quip helped me to explore this question in more detail.
As for replacing old white men with men of color, the pieces I link to above give a sense of why I would exclude them as well. Milloy's piece in particular.
The thing I'm railing against is some aspect of maleness for which I have an inadequate description. This aspect manifests itself as an assumption of power that is theirs by natural right. Certainly all the societies I've looked at make this assumption implicitly. Our society makes this assumption from the top of the social order to the fry cook at a fast food place, and from the conservative right to the progressive left.
For conservatives to think this way is perhaps not too startling. The dominance of men over women is a core part of their world view.
But the left? How could that be? Everyone on the left is politically correct, yes? And yet I see examples all the time. I recall having a conversation about male domination with women in STEM majors at Reed College thirty odd years ago. This college was then (and I assume still is) solidly leftest. This oppression extends all the way through academia (acclaimed as a bastion of liberal politics). Women in academia routinely have a much harder time getting published and getting tenure. This piece and this piece, out of hundreds I could have chosen give a sense of what it is like to be female in academia. Even the National Institutes for Health have gender issues.
The insidious thing is that men, even those with the best intentions, might not see the leverage being used against women. This is akin to white people not seeing oppression of black people. The reason they don't see it is it doesn't happen to them. Similarly, men might readily fail to see what women have to deal with.
The current social structure has roots going back as far as you care to check. For better or worse it has always been this way. So it seems 'natural'. Women learn from a young age to defer to men. You can see this yourself. Go to a business meeting with a mix of gender. See how men tend to dominate the conversation. Or better yet use the advice I give to white people who want to know more about racism: find a person of color (female even better) who is willing to talk with you. Ask them about their experience. So talk to the women you know, especially the ones trying to succeed in business or academia. Ask them about their experiences.
Frankly I don't see how women in power could do worse than men. The male track record is abysmal. Men just enacted a tax cut that added one trillion dollars to the debt in an economy at full employment. Every single economist on the planet thought it was a stupid idea. Men just sent a male to the Supreme Court that may have raped a woman, and certainly does not respect them. Men have created the worse health care system among all of the wealthy countries of the world. And I think it's clear we like guns more than we like children. Male purchased guns.
Our president recently referred to one of his ex-employees as a 'dog'. Classy.
So I was only half joking when I suggested replacing all men in power with women (with the possible exception of Betsy DeVos; that woman is evil). I firmly believe there would be fewer stupid polices and more compromise. But, of course, men would never allow it. They like being in power.
I started to think about these responses. And I recalled two pieces I read in the Washington Post. One was an opinion piece on women of color by Sherrilyn Ifill (Ifill is the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund). Her comment:
I have been thinking about ... over the past few days as I’ve watched President Trump attack black female journalists. Trump’s vicious and public insults of black female professionals should remind us that black women have long had to fight for respect and dignity and against demeaning and ugly stereotypes in the public space.
will give you a sense of what the piece is about. The other piece was by Courtland Milloy (Courtland is a columnist with the Post). He asks an interesting question:
Why aren’t more black men outraged into action when President Trump insults black women?
I urge you to read both articles. But I don't think the problems these folks discuss are limited to black women (though I would agree black women get more of this nastiness). This is why I made the quip I did. The responses to that quip helped me to explore this question in more detail.
As for replacing old white men with men of color, the pieces I link to above give a sense of why I would exclude them as well. Milloy's piece in particular.
The thing I'm railing against is some aspect of maleness for which I have an inadequate description. This aspect manifests itself as an assumption of power that is theirs by natural right. Certainly all the societies I've looked at make this assumption implicitly. Our society makes this assumption from the top of the social order to the fry cook at a fast food place, and from the conservative right to the progressive left.
For conservatives to think this way is perhaps not too startling. The dominance of men over women is a core part of their world view.
But the left? How could that be? Everyone on the left is politically correct, yes? And yet I see examples all the time. I recall having a conversation about male domination with women in STEM majors at Reed College thirty odd years ago. This college was then (and I assume still is) solidly leftest. This oppression extends all the way through academia (acclaimed as a bastion of liberal politics). Women in academia routinely have a much harder time getting published and getting tenure. This piece and this piece, out of hundreds I could have chosen give a sense of what it is like to be female in academia. Even the National Institutes for Health have gender issues.
The insidious thing is that men, even those with the best intentions, might not see the leverage being used against women. This is akin to white people not seeing oppression of black people. The reason they don't see it is it doesn't happen to them. Similarly, men might readily fail to see what women have to deal with.
The current social structure has roots going back as far as you care to check. For better or worse it has always been this way. So it seems 'natural'. Women learn from a young age to defer to men. You can see this yourself. Go to a business meeting with a mix of gender. See how men tend to dominate the conversation. Or better yet use the advice I give to white people who want to know more about racism: find a person of color (female even better) who is willing to talk with you. Ask them about their experience. So talk to the women you know, especially the ones trying to succeed in business or academia. Ask them about their experiences.
Frankly I don't see how women in power could do worse than men. The male track record is abysmal. Men just enacted a tax cut that added one trillion dollars to the debt in an economy at full employment. Every single economist on the planet thought it was a stupid idea. Men just sent a male to the Supreme Court that may have raped a woman, and certainly does not respect them. Men have created the worse health care system among all of the wealthy countries of the world. And I think it's clear we like guns more than we like children. Male purchased guns.
Our president recently referred to one of his ex-employees as a 'dog'. Classy.
So I was only half joking when I suggested replacing all men in power with women (with the possible exception of Betsy DeVos; that woman is evil). I firmly believe there would be fewer stupid polices and more compromise. But, of course, men would never allow it. They like being in power.
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