Time to do something unpopular again…
You know that quote from Steven Moffat that’s been floating around and has everyone screaming SEXISM? You know, this one.
“There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married – we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands.
“The world is vastly counted in favour of men at every level – except if you live in a civilised country and you’re sort of educated and middle-class, because then you’re almost certainly junior in your relationship and in a state of permanent, crippled apology. Your preferences are routinely mocked. There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male.”
I feel like doing something novel and exciting – looking at this in an objective and analytical manner. This, and the responses to it. And the responses are interesting, because they seem to only be about the first sentence. Specifically:
Women are needy and want to get married.
And then the outcry: Don’t blame gender for societal constructs!
Is his statement accurate, though? Sadly, I think it is. Is it because of gender or society? I don’t know. Does Moffat think it’s because of gender, or of society? I don’t know. Let’s ask him before assuming sexism? No, that would be too fair.
No one commented on his statement that men avoid committed relationships. Isn’t saying men are afraid of commitment just as negative as saying women demand commitment?
No one commented on his statement that the world generally favors men. Isn’t that exactly what you all say, all the time? That women are at a disadvantage? That the gender/power distribution is unequal? This is sexist?
No one notices that the rest of this paragraph is specifically about somewhat educated middle-class citizens of a civilized country. That the “state of permanent, crippled apology” and the “lack of respect for anything male” are phenomena he is observing in that specific layer of humanity.
And you know what? He’s right. That’s the group of people who are just educated enough to know about civil rights and feminism and personal equality and the gender disparities, just powerful enough to properly enjoy the luxuries of modern civilization, just wealthy enough to develop feelings of entitlement.
The group of people who aren’t quite educated enough to really engage in critical thinking, aren’t quite privileged enough to step back and view issues of equality from an objective standpoint, are just a little too privileged to fully understand what real inequality is.
The semi-educated civilized middle class is where you find most people with almost logically consistent (but not quite) morality and ethics, who have strong opinions about issues they don’t really understand, the people who yell the loudest because they want to feel Important, the self-righteous people who deride others but don’t do anything.
You get men-hating women, and women-hating men, and because of the rampant inequality in the rest of the world, the women-hating men’s opinions are mocked and the men-hating women’s opinions are celebrated. The normal women are thus slightly marginalized due to the ever-present gender discrepancies, while the men in this particular group are derided, mocked, repeatedly put down by the vociferous mysandrous women who think they are feminists.
That’s what he’s talking about.
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