Feminism - The Female View

So, this is just a try out, if it deems popular then this argument/debate/heated discussion/me castrating Persona 101 for just being plain WRONG, will probably carry on, and if not, then we can try something else, although I do rather like late night conversations, even if they are a little one sided.

Okay, so, seeing as Persona 101 told you all about his political background, I guess I should do the same. It's non-existent. My mum hasn't voted for 12 years at least, and my Dad votes Labour "just so Thatcher doesn't get back in". Yes, that's really what he said.

As much as I think Persona 101 wants me to disagree with him on the equal pay part of his post, I don't at all. Women are hormonal, emotional beings that pop out babies every so often, and because of that, we don't deserve completely equal pay, unless we are working in a very specialised field, have been working for a substantially long period of time, or are doing a job that men are incapable of doing to the same standard, if at all (not that I can think of any now, suggestions in the comments maybe?). However, I do think that the standard of maternity care, including pay and allowed time off, needs to be greatly improved.

The problem with Persona 101's argument is he fails to realise that there are a lot more "house-husbands" around these days, although he does quite rightly mention single mothers. Take, for example, my family. My mum is the bread winner in our house, so when she went on maternity leave shortly before the birth of my younger brother (after working for the best part of eight months of her pregnancy), the only money we had was the rather insubstantial amount coming from the maternity pay. This meant she had to return to work only five or six weeks after giving birth, definitely not an ideal situation for anyone. Thankfully, the fact that my step-father doesn't work means that this wasn't too much of a problem, and we have saved a small fortune on childcare. If her pay had not been threatened to have been cut to some silly level (something like 30% or 40%) after 8 weeks off, then she may have been able to spend more time recuperating, and also spend a little more time with her son.

I feel that I should be arguing against everything Persona 101 is saying, and in fact, I'm a little sad that I'm not, because it must make for pretty boring reading. His views on feminism are completely justified in my eyes. While the equality of men and women in many LEDC's is very varied, with women gaining little to no rights in some countries, women in the majority of the world can count themselves lucky. I certainly do. The simple fact that I'm here, freely writing a post about feminism, and actually being allowed to criticise people's views is a privilege that I hold very dear. Thousands of women suffered to gain us the rights we do deserve, but that shouldn't allow us to abuse those rights and ask for more, simply because we are women. Both men and women need to earn respect before they can expect to be treated equally.

To finish on a lighter note (because I can't be doing with all this seriousness):

Woman 1: Any good comebacks when your boyfriend/husband asks you to "make me a sandwich"?
Woman 2: How about "We ran out of ham, so here's a knuckle sandwich" *Punch*?
Man: Well....you'd better come back with a damn good sandwich.

-Hlctwh93 (A.K.A. -Spanner)