it’s what i would like to see. it’s what i hope everyone would like to see.

why, what’s your goal?

Feminists see *everything* as worse for women, even the things that are in reality, equally bad for men (rape and domestic violence for example). I’d like to know exactly which issues actually *are* worse for women, because every time I’ve had a Feminist bring up supposed “women’s issues” they’ve either been:

i am hardly the spokesperson for feminist theory

but the one closest to home is that women (and several racial minorities) are vastly under-represented in software engineering, and even moreso in open source software

also i particularly like this study in which scientists were given a résumé to evaluate, purportedly for a student applying to grad school. everyone was given the same résumé, but half of them had a male name and half had a female name. across the board the male name earned a better reported impression. so who knows what is going on in STEM generally.

A) Issues that effect men just as much or;

so let’s solve them for everyone. that is an admirable thing to do and i will fight anyone who tries to stop you

but distinct from issues that affect men just as much are issues that have different negative effects on men and women

for example, while women still win more custody battles, that also means most single parents (about 5 in 6) are single mothers. and over a third of single mothers have never been married.

more men die from workplace accidents, but there are indeed feminists who care that fewer women work in those dangerous jobs. earlier this year i saw a story about a group of women fighting to be allowed to work in coal mines somewhere. alas now i can’t find it, and google only turns up people asking why feminists don’t fight to get more women in coal mines.

more money goes to breast cancer, but that’s because people want to save boobs. (look at the flak angelina jolie took.) also as i recall much of the money actually goes to raising “awareness”, not so much actually curing anything, as if anyone were not aware that breast cancer exists. everyone feels better for wearing little ribbons that support breasts. i mean, breast cancer.

these are the things feminists refer to when they say that feminism is for men too

B) Social issues like catcalling or slut shaming, which involve the opinions of people and therefore aren’t really problems you can solve.

err the advertising and political campaigning industries would like to have a word with you

besides, it’s social issues all the way down. laws and shelters and prisons and whathaveyou were all still built by people, and you fix them by changing people’s opinions.

if there’s a wage gap, that’s a reflection of your boss’s opinion of you. if there are fewer women in politics, that’s a reflection of voters’ opinions of who should run the country. more women getting custody and more men in jail? judges’ opinions. none of this is carved in stone anywhere; it’s just a pattern we notice after the fact. and if it’s a reflection of our culture, all anyone can do is keep talking about it and encourage people to pay more attention to how they regard each other.

so isn’t changing opinions exactly what you’re trying to do?