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A Feminist Critique: Bleak cultural effects now, maybe not so much later on?

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posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 03:47 AM
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I like doing laundry, cleaning, taking care of the house, etc. Someone has to, I think it is admirable no matter who does it as it is a good thing in general to take care of one's house and keep personal affairs in good shape. I think a lot of time the hours put into this are not taken as seriously as real work -

But did you know that it would take $113,586 a year on average to replace the work done by a "domesticated" housewife?

Source

Another issue here is that with so many people being single and raising kids while working, how is it that people think this is more free than getting married and splitting the work load?

So let us look at the issue of feminist-eque work being discounted as garbage. We are talking about 1/2 of the worlds work hours, which are essential to a functioning society, not being respected, 1/2 of the world's work hours not even being noticed. In addition - let us say that as a guy, I happen to spend a lot of time cleaning and keeping personal affairs in order and volunteering and caring for people like my parents, which is really what I do in real life. This is the same issue, not a different issue, even though my gender is a male.

There is a lot in what I just said. It has to do with pronoun use and sexism. I believe in male and female tendencies, but they can occur in either male or female physical bodies. And it isn't just a belief, it is based in neuroscience.

Let me give an example of sexism that I encountered recently. A female that I wished to hang out with was having a "girl's night" where they were going to do trivia, and no guys were allowed. I joked that it was sexist, and she said that it wasn't. Well, the honest truth is, it was sexist by definition. Any person should be allowed to go to trivia night if there was no sexism.

On to other, more important issues. The rise of feminism has brought with it a certain number of people, guys and girls, who think that this hook-up culture is okay and great fun. Now, I am not going to preach religion (I always keep it out of debates because it is not legitimate as an argument in most cases) - but I will say that I have met multiple girls that insist on being able to sleep with and date multiple guys at once. Studies by dating websites, however, show the sex is on the decline.

What do the facts say about sexual promiscuity? There are health risks of promiscuity that are very real, including emotional instability.

Health Risks of Promiscuity


The emotional toll from having multiple sexual partners can be very detrimental. Adolescents in particular, are not mature enough to handle promiscuity, and therefore often end up harming themselves in the long run.

“The impact of these high risk behaviors on one’s emotional health includes making dangerous choices that lead to more and more risk. This cycle can lead to problems with self-concept, ineffective relationships, and even depression,” Fitzgerald said to Everyday Health.



Domestic violence is one potential risk associated with having multiple sexual partners.



Not surprisingly, promiscuity brings with it all of the health risks associated with sexual activity.
Individuals who have sexual relations with multiple partners are at an increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases, and Everyday Health indicates more than 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur every year.


These health issues should not be ignored in the bliss of perceived sexual freedom without consequence. There are always consequences to every action, and we live in a time period where being informed about them is important. Many of the health issues explained on the link above, most of which are not quoted in this O.P., might be affecting you, the reader, right now - some of these effects could even be from multiple, sequential relationships, and not simultaneous ones. I'm sure I could even be effected, or have been affected by something on that list.

I tried online dating for a while, and still am. Are there positives to it? Yes! I get to experience meeting with many different people and see who I get along with and even practice going on dates. But I have a strict code of no sexual conduct.

There is your STD stat in there, by the way, 19 million. Guess how many new jobs were created in 2012? Only 1.8 million, and 950,000 in 2013. With a population of 250 million, roughly 7.5% of the population are infected with a new STD every year.

Source

Based on the behavior I have seen in the online dating pool, which I think may be subsiding, it becomes a concern to me the amount of STDs, including HIV, that are being transmitted, many under the radar. I have heard of entire high schools becoming infected with HIV - and how many readers of this O.P. are at risk? I recommend getting tested.

HIV Scare Unnerves a St. Louis High School

There is one example of a high school outbreak, although I know of a few situations on the D.L. in my region.

However, was the rise in promiscuity a temporary result of the hyper-connectivity of the exploding Information Age combined with a few other variables like the feminist movement, scientific sex-ed and the rise of Atheism?

The hyper-connectivity as a result of the internet is a rate-of-change increase, meaning that when it levels out, the amount of connectivity will not be increasing. A sudden increase in potential mates could result in a calibration error. The feminist movement may have confused people into thinking that unstable lives are better than ones settled down with a monogamous partner, however, people should discover differently over time.

In addition, a greater tolerance of non-traditional relationships, such as gay marriage and even reversed or mixed gender roles might end up increasing marriage stability in the long run.

As for sex education, that is going to be an issue that will get a rough start, but after it settles in, social constructs will probably be put in place to replace the ones that existed during abstinence-only sex education.

---

In general, I think that the effect of the feminist movement and these other variables is going to be gigantic - in the short run, we are talking about destroyed families and a destroyed economy and possibly an entire displaced generation. But we have to remember, just from 2005 to 2014, the amount of connectivity has skyrocketed with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and cell phone and texting use has increased.

We are living in a technological revolution that has, in 10 years or less, eclipsed any and all other advances in human history. I believe that humans are adaptable, and I believe that over time, we will heal and things will become more balanced. But remember these days, for they are revolutionary, they are unique.

One last thing - it really is up in the air whether or not we will simply move on to the next technological revolution. This could be anything from cybernetics to bio-engineering and enhanced A.I. and virtual reality. The social effects, however, I believe are mostly isolated to the sudden ability for the entire human race to be in instant communication with itself.



posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 04:15 AM
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reply to post by darkbake
 


But did you know that it would take $113,586 a year on average to replace the work done by a "domesticated" housewife?

Projecting an inflated number like this made me stop reading everything you took the time to type out. Sorry, don't mean to be a drag on your thread, but I just can't buy it.
edit on 1422014 by Snarl because: Wording



posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 04:23 AM
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darkbake

Let me give an example of sexism that I encountered recently. A female that I wished to hang out with was having a "girl's night" where they were going to do trivia, and no guys were allowed. I joked that it was sexist, and she said that it wasn't. Well, the honest truth is, it was sexist by definition. Any person should be allowed to go to trivia night if there was no sexism.


Well I do not think it was sexist, A guy hanging around a group of girls on a 'Girls night' out is just the same as a Vegan working in a slaughter house........ The motives of the person being there can be wrongly opinionated.

Nothing is stopping you from going to the same bar/club for the girls night but then again the girls are stuck with the sexist stereotype for men.....A single lad with a group of girls all getting quite sloshed. The girls are simply wishing to feel at ease in thier surrondings.
edit on 14-2-2014 by Maltese5Rhino because: Accidently hit enter too soon



posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 05:27 AM
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I'm not fully awake here, but I'm not getting this post.

Are you the feminist critiquing current western culture or are you a non-feminist critiquing the current feminist culture?

I like how you start with the traditional female role as house keeper and the attitude of your girlfriend and her ladies club get togethers, but is this more about feminist views concerning human sexuality?

I'm a bit confused here, could you help me out here while I get more coffee?

ETA: I've re-read the OP more carefully and can see how you are not the feminist type here and the connection to modern tech at the end. I think you're saying that feminism isn't contributing a lot of positive social changes right now, is that correct?


edit on 14-2-2014 by MichiganSwampBuck because: added last statements

edit on 14-2-2014 by MichiganSwampBuck because: for clarity



posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 09:05 AM
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I guess I don't know exactly what a feminist is. But I do know that it takes me all day to clean my apt. and my gf can do it in like 30 mins.

If a feminist is a woman that thinks women can do anything a man can do, I pretty much agree, short of a certain biological function.

What I find funny though is how these women, even if they have reached the top of their profession still use their sex.
Look anywhere. Sports for example. Beach volleyball, men play in baggy shorts, women play in tiny bikinis. Track and field, men run in tight outfits that reach their knees, apparently the women need tiny butt showing bikinis. In bussiness, men are expected to wear suits. Shirts buttoned to the neck with a neck tie wrapped around it. Women can wear low cut cleavage revealing tops and short skirts.

Look at the music industry. I guess That Beyonce girls music isnt good enough to stand on its own without her T&A.

Don't get me wrong, I love it. Women are beautiful and sexy. But imagine if men walked around with 3/4 of our penis exposed lol...Hey lady, my eyes are up here lol...

Maybe I missed the whole point of the OP but it seems to me that women want the best of both worlds and really, why shouldn't they?



posted on Feb, 14 2014 @ 09:33 AM
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equal rights
ve haf ze right to collect taxes from everyvone...
ze childrenz too in the future
muuuhhhhahaha


ps I grew up in a single parent familly with my father who got no nuthin for help.
he worked
pops
edit on 14-2-2014 by Danbones because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 16 2014 @ 02:35 AM
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MichiganSwampBuck
ETA: I've re-read the OP more carefully and can see how you are not the feminist type here and the connection to modern tech at the end. I think you're saying that feminism isn't contributing a lot of positive social changes right now, is that correct?



That is a really good way to put it. I like it, thanks. I started out non-feminist before college, ended up feminist towards the end of college, and now I'm beginning to wonder about it. I think there are a lot of complexities involved that I'm not so sure our country could take.

For example, some things, most notably the severing of the current generation to thousands of years of previous human culture, would be nearly impossible to recover from - anything learned in those thousands of years would be lost forever with no one able to navigate the knowledge. This goes with the technology -

These days, people are becoming dangerously unable to think (as in manipulate how things work) and dangerously reliant on copying social behavior instead. There are even feedback loops being created on the internet, which is actually something that usually happens in the human brain - so I think that humans are becoming more like neurons in some kind of sentient net-being.

All of it seems a bit sketchy to me. We think that we know what's going on, but I think things have the potential to go south super fast. I'm not so sure that the United States is necessarily stable at all. I think that Atheism has the potential to wipe out previous culture, but since humans are naturally cultural, we could be seeing a massive rise of Tribalism in the U.S. -

Not even recognizable from ten years ago, we could end with some kind of city-state regional tribe thing going on since values are not tied together at all, they could heavily regionalize, especially with the internet, because it allows for fast recursive thinking -

So someone comes up with an idea, and immediately, that idea becomes the start of more detailed ideas, and each of those becomes the start of more detailed ideas, until you have different groups that are alienated from one another... that's kind of what I'm getting at.

I could easily be over-thinking, way easily


But you know, I keep on thinking about how the Bible states 4 times in the 10 commandments only to worship one God -

And I start thinking, well, right now we are worshiping thousands of Gods - all of the different corporations, games, countless consumerism things that even end up separating people into groups - especially corporations with their employees. They are starting to remind me of cults. Sometimes I wonder who wrote those passages.

Once again, it seems sketchy.
edit on 16amSun, 16 Feb 2014 02:37:47 -0600kbamkAmerica/Chicago by darkbake because: (no reason given)

edit on 16amSun, 16 Feb 2014 02:38:23 -0600kbamkAmerica/Chicago by darkbake because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 16 2014 @ 08:16 AM
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reply to post by darkbake
 


Thanks for the reply DarkBake, I like your analysis.

I have no real clue about feminism past or present, but I am familiar with liberal ideologies.

When I when to college in the late 80's then a University in the early 90's, I was quite liberal, but as I took higher level courses (fine and performing arts mostly) I discovered the post modern art movement, which floored me. I was really into the liberal hip life, recording and running shows for punk/thrash bands, hanging out with artists and philosophers in dive bars, creepy goth type night clubs and downtown "speak-easy" blind pigs. After I graduated and came to understand what I was striving for, I had a breakdown of sorts and became a right of center conservative. I think it was great that a couple of my professors pointed out the folly of cultural relativism in support of our western culture, that helped clarify things for me then. Still, I haven't completely abandoned my liberal leanings entirely yet and I still indulge in some artistic creativity occasionally.

Perhaps you could shed some light on how you came to feminism and why it doesn't have the same appeal it had for you back then?







 
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