Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Don't hit girls

I don't like sexism, even the "positive" stuff like "I'd never hit a woman".  Why?  Partly because if a girl is beating the snot out of a boy- he shouldn't get in trouble for defending himself.  But it's more because I dislike bullying in general.

It shouldn't be "I'd never hit a girl."  It should be "I'd never hit anyone".  No violence against women is a good thing, really it is.  But why are we focusing on one part of the population?  Why not no violence against ANYONE? 

It'd probably be more effective.  If someone's in the habit of solving problems with their fists- then when the logic center of their brain takes a vacation and anger takes over, they're more likely to punch a girl (or anyone, for that matter) than someone that's never hit a person in their life.  Not that this is foolproof logic or anything.

3 comments:

yewberry said...

Yah I don't get it when people say things like that. I agree with you when you say that no-one should use violence against anyone, not just against women.

There is a sort of unfairness there in that if a woman attacks a man it is very hard for the man to defend himself against the law afterwards. The woman can always say it was he who attacked her! Take the example of rape. Very few will believe a man if he says a woman raped him. They would just laught at him.

That's one of the reasons I try to avoid children, especially girls. Likewise I refuse to be in a classroom when there is just one girl in it because if she wanted to she would get me in so much trouble. And alot of my students are not nice and I wouldn't put it past someone of them to try something like that.

I really like kids but I'd never apply for a position as a caretaker, babysitter, or anything like that, not as me now, and not as me after transition. It;s just not worth the risk of people being biased against me just because I was born male.

Queers United said...

i whole-heartedly agree with you. as a male feminist i always found the "don't hit a girl" to be offensive. we shouldn't be hitting anyone, and self-defense against an abusive female is ok.

http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

@YBC- I think the problem with rape is that men only have one thing ont heir mind and want to mate with anything vaguely female that has a pulse. At least, that's the assumption.
There's a comic, Girls with Slingshots, where a guy was almost raped, told his friends about it. The guy friend's reaction was "HIGH FIVE!" and when he realized this was the wrong reaction, he blamed testosterone.

Oy, I can understand that. In Driver's Ed- a teacher couldn't be alone in the vehicle with an opposite-sex student. And it's like that to protect both of them. When it's her/his word against you, it can be hard to prove one way or another- and even if it's proven guilty, you're career and reputation might already be ruined.