naruball said:
1. I doubt that's true. Sure, I do think many of the statistics are misleading, but looking at most corporate jobs, you can easily see how women don't get the same treament/promotion and, as a result, salary. 2. Not sure how domestic violence is determined. But based on my limited experience (i.e. I don't think this is a proper argument) most men are victims of verbal abuse by women. I see it all the time whether it's just bfs and gfs or married couples. It makes me sick how much they oppress men. 3. Not sure about that. If the male toddlers keep being given dolls, I'm sure they'll have great fun with them. If they keep being given trucks and one day the show them both, they most likely will choose trucks over dolls. But, yes overall I do think it's more than genitalia, hence trans people. I just don't trust studies when I don't know how they were conducted. 4. Excellent points. |
Thanks for your well thought-out answer, it's a lot more fun to debate when people give replies like yours! I'll adress your points below.
1) I'm not an expert on the US. I could give you detailed information on the situation in Germany but I guess that would be beside the point. As for America: This video by Christina Hoff Sommers explains the matter in more detail. A study by the AAUW ("American Association of University Women") found that the actual gender wage gap shrinks to 6.6% if you factor in different career choices men and women make. The statistic that is most commonly cited ("women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man makes") is simply the average earning of men and women and does not depict income for the same work (but of course, feminists put their spin on it to make it sound more dramatic). If you factor in hours worked per week and the number of men and women being "on call" on their job (not working regular hours) the gap shrinks to about 2% that women earn less for the same work.
2) Yeah, verbal abuse and manipulation is also a form of abuse. I was strictly refering to physical violence, though and the studies show that women physically abuse men as much as men abuse women. Here is a compilation of more than 200 studies that all show the same results. There are hardly any studies that show a significantly higher number of men abusing women than vice versa. Studies have shown the same results for decades now but there is pressure from feminists to focus on women ("if a woman hits a man she probably has a point"!)
3) I can see how you could interpret the preference for toys as nurture instead of nature but it's highly unlikely as these babies are so young and are not in the laboratory at all times. The study about newborn babies is hard to paint as a case of nurturing of gender roles, though (after all these are newborns). Transsexuals are actually a good point here: Even feminists agree that transsexual people are "a female brain in a male body" or vice versa but at other occasions they say there is no difference between men's and women's brains. But it's really obvious when you think about it. Men and women also have different levels of hormones in their body (especially testosterone and estrogen) and hormones affect behaviour: A man with a low levels of testosterone will behave more feminine and you can make people behave more feminine or masculine by giving them hormones (which is exactly what doctors do with transgendered people). It's hard to argument that differences in males and females are only found in their genitalia when we have such strong evidence that this is not the case. (But I guess you were only sceptical about the toddler's study and I totally agree that we shouldn't believe every study we find!)
4) Thank you!
Edit: Jeez, I think I really come across as a smart-ass in that post, sorry for that! :p
