What ever believe we hold on to, let it be in moderation. Be it religion, principle or thought, there isn’t any need to go overboard. Take for example, feminism. The main idea is for fair treatment of the sexes, where there shouldn’t be prejudice and inequality. The keyword is “inequality”. What we want to achieve is to abolish inequality that oppresses people, regardless of sex, age, race, or whatever form of injustice. However, fighting against inequality doesn’t equate to fighting for equality, because that would be absurd.
Men and women are not “equal” (or more accurately, “identical”). Children and adults are not identical. All the races in the world are not identical. There will be differences (and we should appreciate these differences) in us, and to fight to become equal is illogical.
Feminists (male or female members) who hold on to extreme idea of trying to close the gap that separates or distinguishes men and women (or boy and girl) is not doing justice. As Nature intended, we are different. Science clearly showed that our development is different, our mind is differently wired, and our physiology/physique is completely different. How then can we be equal? What we should be fighting for is to abolish inequality, injustice, and disrespect, but at the same time, we should also respect that we are different, because diversity is good.
Similarly, in marketing science, researchers never tire to study the differences between men and women, so as to effectively target their sales to them. Success in marketing depends on how accurate researchers can predict the response from targeted buyers, and hence it isn’t surprising that corporation can spend millions of dollar just to get the right formula. For example, colorful packaging with floral design is usually meant for girls not because company wants to demean them, but rather to get the best response. Furthermore, skin care products are formulated separately from men and women to reflect gender differences in skin, and not to segregate the sexes so as to stereotype them in bad lights.
As a side note, I do admit that there will always be half-baked marketing company that will come up with stupid, infuriating, and insensitive ideas for their product, e.g. nude models for Volkswagen car in China. The event organizer failed miserable to understand their market. No one in their healthy mind would want to drive their wife and daughter in a car that is so freaking insensitive and disrespectful to women!
Well, I say, keep on fighting against inequality and injustice. But please do it in the right way because it is not mentally healthy to be oversensitive (or over-zealous) all the time. Most important, being a prick could inadvertently hurt the wrong people.
Lastly, I do support the struggle of feminism, and I stand by the ideology, but what I will not tolerate is for zealots to ruin the main intention of the movement. Similarly, brainless zealots are the ones who turned beautiful religion into terror. That should never be condoned.
Just a thought.
sbsstudent's Blog 