True Feminism, Part II
Or, Ideo vives longa, Dishonest Feminism, and Competitive People
Ideo vives longa
Julia Galef is one of my heroines, and when I was scrolling through her tweets looking for the one about judging people based on intent and the "Good Faith" Principle, I found this tweet, which I think is remarkably feminist:
Dishonest Feminism
Why does this seem like a feminist statement, you ask?
I don't think there's anything more anti-feminist than dishonest feminism. Let me unpack that statement by starting with my definition of feminism. To me, feminism is equal freedom for women and men, as per my True Feminism - Female Mozarts, Male Bashing, and Camille Paglia post. Not equal opportunity but equal freedom. (Perhaps this falls under the umbrella of gender equality. All these terms are so loaded, nowadays, that I'm not sure any of these labels actually accomplish anything good anymore.)
Dishonest feminism seems to be prevalent in today's society. I'm not really a student of feminism, although I do consider myself a feminist (although I would also label myself a masculinist, if that were such a word, since I believe men should have the same freedoms as women). But it seems to me that feminists nowadays are looking for excuses to say that women are better than men at [skill]. I think the discussion/argument surrounding gender roles and skills is distracting from the actual issue, which is freedom.
Freedom for women to do what they want, freedom for men to do what they want (within the Non-Aggression Principle, of course).
Competitive People
It's not a competition about which gender is better than the other at [skill] or life. As Nassim Nicholas Taleb says:
[Competitive people] have a tendency to commoditize and reduce the world to categories.
He further criticizes competitive people as being nonphilosophical. Ouch.
I dunno. I think people are people and we should all have freedom under the law. I don't know why it has to be more complex than that. To me, this is what feminism means.
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