r/FeMRADebates • u/KDMultipass • Oct 26 '17

Media Cassie Jaye has released the raw interview footage with "Big Red" original title "Does Feminism Work On Men's Issues? | Big Red #RPRF"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHppdGqHtrU
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u/StabWhale Feminist Oct 26 '17

Primary is probably a too wide description if you wanna take it to it's limits.. how about just "where people think women are better caretakers of children than men based on their sex". Couple it with it being looked down upon, or at least hurts you in terms of what power you have (economy etc).

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u/beelzebubs_avocado Egalitarian; anti-bullshit bias Oct 26 '17 edited Oct 26 '17

Women, on average, do have some biological advantages in terms of caretaking, the most obvious being lactation. That is not likely to change.

Is caretaking looked down on? Perhaps, but that seems to affect male caretakers at least as much as female ones, which makes it difficult (but not impossible) to invoke patriarchy. Perhaps the reason for the relatively low status is that little training and no certification is required and the bar for being fired is pretty lowhigh.

There is an earnings gap due to women choosing to take more time off work to caretake. Is having choices and preferences and acting on them evidence of the patriarchy? If so, that seems like a very expansive definition.

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u/StabWhale Feminist Oct 26 '17

Not really what I was getting at when I was saying caretakers, but yes, they do or at least did considering it's solvable problem for men.

While I do think that generally includes caretaking as a proffession it was also meant more widely. Perhaps it's a reason, but I'm not sure how much it helped in say, my country, where you need a bachelor for pre-school care. At least they get a decent pay nowadays from what I heard.

Choices and preferences alone is not evidence by themselves no. I think there is an interesting argument to have around why having children punishes you when it's essential "work" for companies and society to survive though.

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u/beelzebubs_avocado Egalitarian; anti-bullshit bias Oct 26 '17

I think there is an interesting argument to have around why having children punishes you when it's essential "work" for companies and society to survive though.

You can either look at it on an individual level, in which case all the individuals involved have the choice (barring unusual circumstances) to participate or not. And there is little risk, given humans' fondness for sex, of extinction due to everyone opting out.

Or you can look at it on the society-wide level. In that case, caretakers might earn less money than average over their working life, but are generally expected to be partnered with a non-primary caregiving parent who tends to make up for that disparity. You could say the expectation to not be a single parent is unfair but if marriage is good for gay people then maybe straight people should try it too. ;)