I've been pondering the future of feminism for some reason recently. Here are some of those thoughts. I'd love to hear yours.
BETTER BIRTH CONTROL is a major factor in feminism's future. It is increasingly more effective, safe, and cheap. This, plus a change in culture that makes it more acceptable to marry later, means that some countries have populations which have radically slowed, stopped, or even decreased. This includes the US, Russia, several European countries, and China, which recently did away with its one-child policy.
BRAINS BEATS BRAWN is a work trend which began in the mid-1800s. It is still playing out though it's very far along. At brain work women are as capable as men. In fact, today Western women on average have more education than men; it is part of the reason that many men are out of work in the Western world.
That trend has had effects even in that traditionally masculine job: killing. It is increasingly high-tech, and women can aim weapons and pull triggers as well as men. They can make good snipers. For example, in WWII Ukrainian Lyudmila Pavlichenko made 309 credited kills.
Women can also fly fighter jets. Even as woman-hating a country as Pakistan has them. It takes well over a million dollars a year to train and KEEP TRAINED a fighter pilot. For pilots must train every year of their useful life to stay sharp, and to keep up with the relentless yearly improvements of aircraft AND their weapons. This despite the high cost of munitions and jet fuel and all the other expenses of flying aircraft every week. No country can afford to ignore a potential source of pilots.
In both jobs as well as others a typical woman's small size is an asset. She can sneak and hide better. Another advantage is less obvious: the effects of the square-cube law. This is the reason fleas can jump many times their height, and elephants can't jump at all. It makes small people's cardio system more efficient and so gives them more stamina. It also makes them better able to resist high-g forces imposed on them by fighter acrobatics.
Once I understood that I realized there were wider implications.
SUBDOM SEXES, RACES, CLASSES, CITIZENS also share in the brains-beats-brawn trend. Intelligence does not favor heterosexuality, the dominant race in a country, their social class, or their citizenship status.
Other forces do, of course, including the dominant culture. In the US, for instance, a poor Lesbian black immigrant has a tough time, so much so that she may die or be permanently sidelined before she has a chance to prove her worth. In China urban Han Chinese have a firm lock on political power. But since the late 70s a radical shift to capitalism in China has opened up economic power to more provincials and racial minorities. In the long run profit beats prejudice.
The FEMINIST FRONTIER has expanded to include the entire world. In every country and culture it changes to reflect local conditions. In Islamic countries many feminists use the Quran to support their goals. In African countries many use anti-colonialist sentiment.
In countries where feminism has advanced the most many feel the expansion has finished. Recent events such as the concerted continuing attacks on Planned Parenthood show this is false. A thousand subtler factors push back against feminism. Every checkout stand has a dozen magazines saying that a woman MUST be beautiful, young, and skinny - desirable to men. Almost every image of bi-sex couples has the man looking out of the frame but the woman looking at him. References to the two sexes are always MEN and women, BOYS and girls, never the reverse.
The feminist frontier is everywhere.
Where do you think feminism is going? And how and why?
TRENDS
BETTER BIRTH CONTROL is a major factor in feminism's future. It is increasingly more effective, safe, and cheap. This, plus a change in culture that makes it more acceptable to marry later, means that some countries have populations which have radically slowed, stopped, or even decreased. This includes the US, Russia, several European countries, and China, which recently did away with its one-child policy.
BRAINS BEATS BRAWN is a work trend which began in the mid-1800s. It is still playing out though it's very far along. At brain work women are as capable as men. In fact, today Western women on average have more education than men; it is part of the reason that many men are out of work in the Western world.
That trend has had effects even in that traditionally masculine job: killing. It is increasingly high-tech, and women can aim weapons and pull triggers as well as men. They can make good snipers. For example, in WWII Ukrainian Lyudmila Pavlichenko made 309 credited kills.
Women can also fly fighter jets. Even as woman-hating a country as Pakistan has them. It takes well over a million dollars a year to train and KEEP TRAINED a fighter pilot. For pilots must train every year of their useful life to stay sharp, and to keep up with the relentless yearly improvements of aircraft AND their weapons. This despite the high cost of munitions and jet fuel and all the other expenses of flying aircraft every week. No country can afford to ignore a potential source of pilots.
In both jobs as well as others a typical woman's small size is an asset. She can sneak and hide better. Another advantage is less obvious: the effects of the square-cube law. This is the reason fleas can jump many times their height, and elephants can't jump at all. It makes small people's cardio system more efficient and so gives them more stamina. It also makes them better able to resist high-g forces imposed on them by fighter acrobatics.
Once I understood that I realized there were wider implications.
SUBDOM SEXES, RACES, CLASSES, CITIZENS also share in the brains-beats-brawn trend. Intelligence does not favor heterosexuality, the dominant race in a country, their social class, or their citizenship status.
Other forces do, of course, including the dominant culture. In the US, for instance, a poor Lesbian black immigrant has a tough time, so much so that she may die or be permanently sidelined before she has a chance to prove her worth. In China urban Han Chinese have a firm lock on political power. But since the late 70s a radical shift to capitalism in China has opened up economic power to more provincials and racial minorities. In the long run profit beats prejudice.
The FEMINIST FRONTIER has expanded to include the entire world. In every country and culture it changes to reflect local conditions. In Islamic countries many feminists use the Quran to support their goals. In African countries many use anti-colonialist sentiment.
In countries where feminism has advanced the most many feel the expansion has finished. Recent events such as the concerted continuing attacks on Planned Parenthood show this is false. A thousand subtler factors push back against feminism. Every checkout stand has a dozen magazines saying that a woman MUST be beautiful, young, and skinny - desirable to men. Almost every image of bi-sex couples has the man looking out of the frame but the woman looking at him. References to the two sexes are always MEN and women, BOYS and girls, never the reverse.
The feminist frontier is everywhere.
Where do you think feminism is going? And how and why?
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