Feminism: Equality of the Sexes

Thanks for the prompt response (I understand the whole "no life" predicament). "People who identify as feminists but, for the purposes of this argument, are in fact NOT feminists include..." While I would love it if there was some sort of sub-movement for people who agree with the traits you listed, the fact of the matter is you can't simply eliminate members of a movement because they don't follow the perceived proper agenda. The members of the Westboro Baptist Church, while renounced heavily by most other Baptists, are still technically Baptists. Similarly, even though misandrist "feminists" don't follow the proper tenets of feminism, they are still technically feminists. "[A]nswer the debate's original question: 'Is feminism a positive movement for women globally, or a negative movement that 'belittles' and 'threatens' men?'" Sorry, I (evidently wrongly) assumed that your question was whether or not feminism was about equality of the sexes. belittle [1] verb 1. to regard or portray as less impressive or important than appearances indicate; depreciate; disparage. threaten [2] verb 1. to utter a threat against; menace. 2. to be a menace or source of danger to. The definition of feminism, like I said, separates society into two categories: men and women, with women as the disadvantaged group. And as I demonstrated, the reality of things is much more complicated, with race being the more prominent problem than gender. Does this belittle the struggles of men, particularly MOC and those in poverty? Yes, it does portray their problems as less important than those of their female counterparts, seeing as feminism is a movement geared toward getting women's rights equal to men's, and not vice versa in situations in which that might be necessary. Proving that feminism is "threatening" to men is more difficult, as it is generally a subjective opinion what a person finds threatening. The Taliban found Malala Yousafzai and her quest for girls' education to be threatening and attempted to assassinate her, but most people, particularly those in the West, think of equal education not as a threatening matter but one that is a no-brainer. So I, as a girl, could never prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that feminism was threatening to men. However, there is a law in the UK that could possibly show that feminism is a threat. It is summarized very well in the opening paragraph of The Telegraph [3] article on it: "Men accused of date rape will need to convince police that a woman consented to sex as part of a major change in the way sex offences are investigated." This law a) doesn't provide any legal protection for men who might have been wrongly accused, b) perpetuates the stereotype of a male rapist and a female victim, and c) completely throws the right to be innocent until proven guilty out the window. There is also a lot of confusion as to how one is supposed to prove consent, especially if it is spoken consent. While rape is an abhorrent crime, this new law is literally taking away people's rights. "We are using the definition I first provided- not the definition you are trying to impose into this debate." You said that, "feminism is the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes." I said that feminism is "the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men." While there are slight semantic differences between the two, they are similar enough that it wouldn't provide much issue. I was simply trying to provide a definition with a source. I'll continue with your definition, though. "Later in your argument, you provide resources that indicate that the women in this country (United States) make less than their male counterparts. Therefore, from a monetary standpoint, men are superior to women." The wage gap calculation doesn't take into account different professions. The statistics I provided were made with averaged salaries for individuals of a certain gender or race across the US. Women are statistically more likely to choose lower-paying majors during college, and even those who choose more lucrative majors still go into lower-paying professions [4]. Generally in middle- to upper-class families, men are the primary breadwinner, perhaps leaving women with less of a desire to pursue a high-paying profession and instead go into one she enjoys. It could explain why whites and Asians have a higher gender gap than African-Americans and Latinos. "[I]t seems you are grouping a Noah's Ark of white men and white women, Asian American men and Asian American women, African American men and African American women, and Latino men and Latina women- they seem, in your argument, to be on completely different levels of possible equal income...which is not what feminism advocates for at all." I was equalizing it the way I did to make a point that racial discrepancies in the wage gap are more significant than gender discrepancies. Of course true equalization would never work to separate the races so much. "'NOW is a multi-issue, multi-strategy organization that takes a holistic approach to women's rights. Our priorities are winning economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women; championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women's health issues; opposing racism; fighting bigotry against the LGBTQIA community; and ending violence against women.'" While I understand that NOW is an organization advocating women's rights, the polarized focus on women is exactly what I was talking about when I explained how feminism is belittling male problems. Though 77% of murder victims are male [5], and victims of assault are more likely to be male than female [6], NOW advocates ending violence against women and says nothing of men. "I do not mean to offend anyone who does not consider themselves male or female." Me neither, but for the purpose of this argument, debating cis men and women is easiest. Sources: [1] http://dictionary.reference.com... [2] http://dictionary.reference.com... [3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk... [4] http://www.npr.org... [5] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... [6] http://www.bjs.gov...