Tag: feminism

SEXUAL IDENTITY

Simone de Beauvoir’s argument for women’s equality may be broadened to argue that every human being should have an equal opportunity to achieve social equality and economic independence.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Second Sex”

Author: Simone de Beauvoir & 2 more

Narration by: Ellen Archer & 1 more

Simone de Beauvoir (French existential philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist.)

Because “The Second Sex” is a translation, there are two translators who interpret the writing of this brilliant French author. Simone de Beauvoir’s social, cultural, and historical analysis of women’s societal inequality forcibly reinforces the need for human equality in the world. Despite that truth, women and minorities throughout history have been treated unequally.

It is absurd to think that 49.7% of the world population may be treated less equally than men.

Simone de Beauvoir’s history shows women are not afforded the equal opportunity of men despite baring children who sustain the human race. In the early days of human existence de Beauvoir notes difference in strength between men and women may have led to a mistaken belief that the sexes are unequal. As the centuries pass, de Beauvoir argues strength difference undoubtedly influenced the perceived role of women in the world. In the industrial age, with the advance of machine power, strength became less and less a distinction between the sexes. Machine power should have led to a better understanding of human equality. However, de Beauvoir suggests experience and history of past lives seems to have set a societal belief in sexual inequality that is, at best, only slowly being reversed.

Sweden begins to rectify inequality in the early 20th century but even it fails to change entrenched belief in sexual inequality.

The rise of communism in 1917 became a frontline movement for sexual equality. The role of women in Russia changes in both war and peace with women assuming roles of combatant, worker, as well as child bearer. Ms. de Beauvoir believes neither communism nor Sweden’s policies eliminate sexual inequality. Socialism and communism helped but patriarchy is not eliminated by equal economic opportunity or alleged women’s liberation. Despite Sweden’s formalization of legal equalization of the sexes, the cultural expectations about femininity, motherhood, and men’s domination have been accepted in most, if not all, nations of the world. Neither socialism nor communism fully remove the learned behaviors of human history. Simone de Beauvoir’s point is that laws and economic systems have not erased generations of human history but rather assumed or endorsed sexual discrimination.

The conclusion de Beauvoir has is that no form of government by itself has successfully eliminated discrimination based on sexual identity.

The interpretation of natural bodily functions in women’s lives like menstruation is noted by de Beauvoir as interpreted by men and accepted by society as a biological “otherness” that is (at least in 1949) viewed as impure and pathological. Menstruation is viewed as a symptom of women that makes them less than fully human. This natural cleansing of a female reproductive system is viewed as a time of emotional instability that makes women unclean and an example of their being less equal to men. Menstruation is something that identifies women as the “other” rather than the equal of human beings. (The truth only changes beliefs slowly.)

Simone de Beauvoir’s argument for women’s equality is expandable in that every human being should have an equal opportunity to achieve social equality and economic independence. The designers of the American Constitution understood this principle but, like the rest of the world’s population, fail to practice it. Social inequality remains a problem for democracy and all known forms of government.

Simone de Beauvoir explains women’s natural reproductive system differences are interpreted by society as a measure of human inequality.

One listens to de Beauvoir’s book and realizes what she has written about sexual inequality as a person who has experienced it. Inequality has diminished in 21st century America with increases in women’s opportunities without marrying or committing to a relationship with a male. Though de Beauvoir published her book in 1949, the difference today is in degree because economic independence remains a greater struggle for women than men in America. Too many young women are working for wages that require help from a relationship with men to meet their cost-of-living for a decent life. Being able to make a decent living is true of all poor Americans, but it is more widely experienced by women because they are half the human race.

Because the author’s focus is on women, she argues every woman should have control over their reproductive rights, be treated equally in the culture in which they live and be able to transform false beliefs of inferiority based on accomplishment, not on false societal beliefs. In some ways, today’s America is regressing as is evidenced by 21st century policies on reproductive rights. Simone de Beauvoir goes on to give many examples of how differences between men and women reinforce the false belief of sexual inequality.

Gender Inequality

Raising children is the responsibility of all, i.e., both mothers and fathers, and the society in which they live. The future depends on our children.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Lessons in Chemistry (A Novel)

Author: Bonnie Garmus

Narration by: Miranda Raison & 2 more

Bonnie Garmus (American author and former copywriter.)

Bonnie Garmus’s main character represents the truth of gender inequality in society. The author’s main character, Elisabeth Zott, is an example of a woman who achieves success despite gender discrimination. As an idealized character, Zott represents a brilliant woman who is smarter, more self-motivated, and confident than any other character in “Lessons in Chemistry”. Zott is a self-educated woman who overcomes the ignorance of personal and social inequality. She is an aspiring scientist who is derailed in her career by male associates who steal her research and claim it as their own. It is presumed by the research firm for which she works that her science papers come from association with her male partner’s accomplishments rather than her own work. Zott’s value is believed to be her attractive appearance rather than her intellect, personal work, and ambition.

Equal opportunity in society is a fiction.

Zott’s male partner is a renowned scientist in the same scientific research firm for which Zott is employed. They become an intimate couple with marriage on the mind of the man, but independence insisted upon by Zott. Her companion dies in an accident and Zott is left with what is an unexpected pregnancy. Alone with a child, Zott presumes she will continue to work at the research firm but is fired by the male director of the enterprise because of her having a baby out of wedlock. Zott uses what financial savings she has to create a research lab in her house, raise her child, and find another source of employment. The author illustrates how motherhood, particularly for a single woman, limit women’s opportunity in society. The responsibilities of life for a woman with child and no partner often trap women in poverty.

How Zott escapes a life of poverty is a meaningful fairy tale in Garmus’s story.

Zott is hired by a TV production manager to host a cooking show. Zott’s intelligence and experience as a chemist combine with her drive for independence to make the show a success. What Bonnie Garmus shows is the mountain for success one climbs as a single woman is steeper and more difficult than it is for men. The “Lessons in Chemistry” are that a woman’s right to think, work, and live independently are denied because equal opportunity and equal pay is thwarted by gender-related discrimination.

All in society, both male and female, need to step up to their responsibility for raising children.

The “Lessons in Chemistry” suggest men need to step up in society and take responsibility for gender inequality by providing an environment that allows women to achieve the same level of success as men–whatever that success may be to the individual. Raising children is the responsibility of all, i.e., both mothers and fathers, and the society in which they live. The future depends on our children.

GENDER INEQUALITY

“Betraying Big Brother” is not wrong about gender inequality but the author’s anger and personal choices cloud the author’s message. Gender inequality is real everywhere in the world. Education is a beginning, but practice is the end.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Betraying Big Brother (The Feminist Awakening in China)

Author: Leta Hong Fincher

Narrated By: Emily Woo Zeller

Leta Hong Fincher (Author, American journalist, feminist and writer, first American to receive a Ph.D from Tsinghua University’s Department of Sociology in Bejing., graduated from Harvard with a BA and a master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Stanford.)

The education and experience of Leta Hong Fincher is somewhat betrayed by her anger in “Betraying Big Brother”. Misogyny is an international reality that defies the truth of human equality. This reviewer’s prejudice, like the author’s biases are suspect because of their respective life experiences. This book reviewer was raised by a single parent mother who worked to keep two sons with a roof over their head and food on the table. How women survive inequality is made of the same stuff as that which plagues minorities around the world. The difference is that women are not a minority.

Fincher’s anger is justified by her life experiences.

She writes of being a 15-year-old girl who is physically and emotionally abused by two boys who are friends of an older male friend that takes her to a get together of young acquaintances. That event burns a memory into Fincher’s mind that sets her on a journey thru life. One reading/listening to “Betraying Big Brother” recognizes the truth of what the author writes is reinforced by her life experiences. Of course, that is true of all human beings, but anger diminishes the impact of what Fincher says and writes.

Leadership?

Whether living in a democracy or autocracy, sexual inequality is present. Gender discrimination is universal. America and China talk the talk but fail to walk the walk. Fincher writes of Mao’s saying that “women hold up half the sky” implying he believed in gender equality. Mao spoke of marriage reform and labor participation but patriarchal norms were adhered to with women workers not being paid the same as men nor offered similar positions of power.

Xi speaks of gender equality, but no women are on the 24-member Politburo.

Xi also speaks of gender equality, but no women are on the 24-member Politburo while pay and promotions lag behind men. Fincher writes of Big Brother censorship, surveillance, and detention of women in China. (One presumes that is also true of everyone in China.) Like Trump, Xi promotes women’s roles in domestic stability, and their childbearing responsibilities. America has yet to elect a woman as President. Equal pay for equal work is improving in America, but a gap still exists with lower starting salaries, performance evaluation biases, and fewer high-profile assignments or promotions.

“Betraying Big Brother” is not wrong about gender inequality but the author’s anger and personal choices cloud the author’s message. Gender inequality is real everywhere in the world. Education is a beginning, but practice is the end.

SEXUAL INEQUALITY

Emily Witt illustrates how undesirable sexual inequality is for the future of American society. Witt explains events in her life that have led her to become a successful author. Witt’s life experiences are like the events in every human’s life but without the unfair burden of sexual inequality.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Health and Safety (A Breakdown)

By: Emily Witt

Narrated By: Emily Witt

Emily Witt (Author, investigative journalist based in Brooklyn, worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker.)

Emily Witt is born two generations after this reviewer’s youth. It is a refreshing look at the great changes and similarities between my generation and Ms. Witt’s. The big difference is Ms. Witt is an attractive woman, not a man. Her life, in many ways, is unlike women of past generations but similar to men of my generation. She writes of her life, of experimenting with drugs, being in and out of serious and not-so-serious sexual relationships and striving for success in today’s America.

Witt is representative of societal change in America.

On the one hand she shows the independence and growing equality of the sexes. Liberated from the stereotypes of women as bearers of children and keepers of home and hearth, Witt’s story is like what American men’s lives were two generations ago. Her life today reminds one of a man’s life in the 1960s. She shows an understanding of the difference between love and sex but seems neither consumed nor controlled by either sex or love’s existence. She chooses her own path in life. There is strength and weakness in her character just as there is in all human beings.

The other side of her story is the consequence of sexual equality and its impact on culture.

In women’s liberation something is gained and lost. The gain is in women’s opportunity. It is time for men to step up and take equal responsibility for family comity, stability, and growth. One who did not come from an Ozzie and Harriet family but from a single parent family sees the strength of liberation of women but wonders what is lost by children raised by single parents in America. Do children become more or less dependent on others as a result of being raised by a single parent? In some ways they become more independent but in others they become socially isolated and culturally inept. That social isolation and ineptness has future consequences for children of single parent homes. Women are rightfully liberated from being the sole responsible parent for children’s care, but fathers are failing to pick up the slack.

Though juvenile delinquency is shown to have decreased in America, the education and success of children begins at home. More responsibility must be taken by fathers for teaching societal values and behavior to children. By taking equal responsibility, fathers will reinvigorate American society. Without a reorientation of men’s lives in American families, i.e., acceptance of family responsibility and women’s equality, American democracy’s economic and social success will be diminished.

The current political environment in America is trying to return the economy and society to the twentieth century, a fool’s errand.

Witt illustrates how undesirable sexual inequality is for the future of American society. Witt explains events in her life that have led her to become a successful author. Witt’s life experiences are like the events in every human’s life but without the unfair burden of sexual inequality.

Addendum: The most troubling part of Witt’s story is the feeling that her generation is failing American society by withdrawing into themselves with drugs to avoid dealing with the problems of the 21st century. Experimenting with drugs is one thing but using them to escape America’s problems is a disappointment to this aged survivor of the baby boom generation.

LIFE

The eradication of inequality is in the eyes of beholders. We are mere humans struggling to be better than we are.

Books of Interest
 Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Female Persuasion (A Novel)

By: Meg Wolitzer

Narrated By: Rebecca Lowman

Meg Wolitzer (Author)

Many “sexual awakening” books of the past are about men and boys. Nabokov’s Lolita, Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Baldwins “Giovanni’s Room” to name three. “The Female Persuasion” gives listener/readers a glimpse of what “sexual awakening” is for girls. That is not to say “The Female Persuasion” is only about sexual awakening. Wolitzer’s story illustrates there is little difference between young men’s and women’s interest in sex and their ambition for success in an adult world.

“The Female Persuasion” gives voice to the equality of women despite historical misogyny.

Two women roommates at a fictional college talk about their lives and explain their frustration with unequal treatment in society. One has sexual relations with women, the other with men but each feel their opportunities in life are limited by being women in a Mans’ world. Greer Kadetsky complains to the University about a male student who sexually assaults her and is ignored by the administration. She is characterized as an intelligent woman who is eligible for admission to Yale but is rejected because of her parents’ mistakes on a financial disclosure form about scholarship assistance. Her unhappiness about not getting into Yale is compounded by the student assault she reports that is essentially ignored by the local college she attends.

Men and women are equal and should be afforded all the rights and opportunities available to men.

The heroine of the story has a boyfriend, Cory Pinto, whom she met in high school. They became lovers at some point in their relationship. She notes in a college dorm where her boyfriend undresses her and expresses admiration of her body. She appreciates her lover’s comment. The author’s perception of beauty reinforces the similarity between men and women and their sexuality. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, whether male or female, but every person appreciates positive comment about their appearance.

Another element of interest in “The Female Persuasion” is a reinforcement of the saying “Birds of a feather flock together”. Cory and Greer come from lower middleclass families while showing higher than average intelligence in high school that leads them to a college education. After graduation, Cory and Greer move-in together with Cory finding a job while Greer volunteers at a non-profit while pursuing a writing career. Is it a surprise that a person with a college degree has a hard time finding a job after graduating? No, but it seems men are luckier, or one might conclude men are beneficiaries of a built-in gender bias.

Not to read too much into Wolitzer’s story, it seems most job opportunities are better for men than women.

Greer has a chance meeting with a feminist who speaks at the university she attends. In that serendipitous contact, Greer makes a positive impression on the speaker. After graduation, Greer is contacted by the famous feminist with a possible job interview. However, the potential employer dies, and the interview never happens. Meanwhile, Cory has found a job and is pursuing his career. Greer is living at home with her parents to cut down on expenses.

Greer is contacted by a New York feminist organization and is offered an interview that results in a job in New York.

Cory is working outside the country for his company, but the couple continues a long-range relationship. Greer is gaining some success and experience in her job. An interesting incident is noted that gives listener/readers insight to women’s competitiveness when Greer exhibits reluctance to show a letter to her employer for her former gay friend looking for a job. Greer chooses not to proffer the letter to her employer and lies to her friend about having given it. This seems a petty incident, but it is present in all human beings, i.e., the feeling that a person who has found their step on the ladder of success should care about others when they might be competing with them if they go to work for the same company. This seems a matter of personal ambition, not a gender or sexual orientation issue.

The end of the book offers an unsatisfying “bow tie”. The ending has a fairy tale quality that will appeal to some, but the real world is different. Life happens, jobs change, people’s relationships fall apart; some mend, others do not. The eradication of inequality is in the eyes of beholders. We are mere humans struggling to be better than we are.