Watch now (5 min) | I was talking with Paul Elam after his 2013 interview with Elizabeth Vargas for a 20/20 episode that never made it to the screen. Paul mentioned that one of the things he had told Vargas was that equality would be a step down for women. He said it stopped her in her tracks. She was speechless as he explained his reasons. This video is a video version of that conversation. Many thanks to Paul for his help in writing the script.
A brilliant presentation that goes straight to the empty heart of equity and also demystifies equality, seeing it as reality, not as an idea. My own experience writing about these disparities (e.g., Modern Masculinity, ch. 9, disposable men) is that people either do not believe them or dismiss them, saying, for example, "if that is true, it is only because . . ." and so on. People need to believe that they are right, not that they need to know more. They want cake, not spinach.
Imagine trying to get this presentation shown in a high school or university. To do something about the problem, which I see as the power of equity over equality, you have to get educators to see it as a problem. They know that they don't acquire power by telling students to work to achieve their goals; they acquire power by showing students that they have been prevented by white men from reaching those goals.
In some cases, the opposition has an argument. For example, to be seen as a genius you have to be recognized and have to be around people who can see it, know what it is. I do not doubt that many brilliant people, including white men, have been overlooked because they were not visible and were not in a place where their brilliance was expected. If, as was true centuries ago, you didn't believe that women could reason or write, you would not educate them, no matter how smart they seemed.
Doesn't talent have to be discovered and nurtured by somebody looking for it, who knows what it is? Lots of outstanding boxers have been left behind because nobody was looking to them for greatness, being focused on somebody else's greatness. Or so it seems to me. Thanks for a thoughtful, informative piece.
How could you forget that 50% of rapists would have to be sent to a female prison! We can not have the male prisoners taking all the risks!
Our equal protection laws (already in the constitution) would not permit female prisoners to get extra protections that male prisoners do not get! So the practice of only sending male rapists to male prisons would have to cease! Women are protected by have male rapists excluded from female prisons but mandated to be sent to male prisons!
That sort of androcentric mischief making must stop Mr Golden. You know very well that women were never intended to do the disagreeable, difficult, dirty or dangerous jobs, that is what men are for.
A brilliant presentation that goes straight to the empty heart of equity and also demystifies equality, seeing it as reality, not as an idea. My own experience writing about these disparities (e.g., Modern Masculinity, ch. 9, disposable men) is that people either do not believe them or dismiss them, saying, for example, "if that is true, it is only because . . ." and so on. People need to believe that they are right, not that they need to know more. They want cake, not spinach.
Imagine trying to get this presentation shown in a high school or university. To do something about the problem, which I see as the power of equity over equality, you have to get educators to see it as a problem. They know that they don't acquire power by telling students to work to achieve their goals; they acquire power by showing students that they have been prevented by white men from reaching those goals.
In some cases, the opposition has an argument. For example, to be seen as a genius you have to be recognized and have to be around people who can see it, know what it is. I do not doubt that many brilliant people, including white men, have been overlooked because they were not visible and were not in a place where their brilliance was expected. If, as was true centuries ago, you didn't believe that women could reason or write, you would not educate them, no matter how smart they seemed.
Doesn't talent have to be discovered and nurtured by somebody looking for it, who knows what it is? Lots of outstanding boxers have been left behind because nobody was looking to them for greatness, being focused on somebody else's greatness. Or so it seems to me. Thanks for a thoughtful, informative piece.
Rapists in prison!
How could you forget that 50% of rapists would have to be sent to a female prison! We can not have the male prisoners taking all the risks!
Our equal protection laws (already in the constitution) would not permit female prisoners to get extra protections that male prisoners do not get! So the practice of only sending male rapists to male prisons would have to cease! Women are protected by have male rapists excluded from female prisons but mandated to be sent to male prisons!
That sort of androcentric mischief making must stop Mr Golden. You know very well that women were never intended to do the disagreeable, difficult, dirty or dangerous jobs, that is what men are for.