I was watching pro golf coverage on the news and it seems so odd that men and women compete separately - same goes with pro bowling. Just seems weird to me that a game of skill is gendered when you can’t even raise an argument that someone might have an advantage because of what’s between their legs.
Humans IMO. Is there actually a widespread benefit to forcibly upholding the gender roles? I can tell you about 100 cons. Let people be what they want. It shouldn’t be forced upon others. It’s easier to just not bother.
it’s complicated but given that they’re a near-universal phenomenon (despite what those roles are not being universal), i do think it logically follows that humans collectively derive some social value from their continuation―although i think opinions would vary heavily on what that social value is. in any case it doesn’t seem likely we’d spontaneously invent and almost universally adopt a social construct with no intrinsic benefits.
okay but, assuming that things have to be gendered because they tend to be, do we derive social value from this particular configuration or from the existence of a default? there are plenty of cultures that acknowledge gender roles beyond man and woman. you’re right inasmuch as I can’t think of any society that has existed entirely absent some sort of system of gender roles, but to call the western gender binary universal is a bit of a stretch.
Maybe not for you or I but capitalism thrives off of exploitation and gender is but one of the many levers that can be used to promote division.
I’m not going to go off listing everything that feminists have studied in that regard, but some of the major ones that come to mind is the wage gap and glass ceiling.
Of course there’s more than a financial aspect to sexism, namely power. And it’s up to you to decide which aspect you think contributes the most.
Well, you did put together a nice and handy list of cons at least!