Joss Whedon: "What's wrong with women?"

[asterroc]

Joss Whedon on why ALL cultures put down women.

Some of his words really struck home with me, about how for the past year or two I haven't been willing to sit down and shut up anymore.

Because it’s no longer enough to be a decent person. It’s no longer enough to shake our heads and make concerned grimaces at the news. True enlightened activism is the only thing that can save humanity from itself. ... All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause – there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once.

[Emphasis mine.] That was the point that nudged me past the brink into action - that if you're NOT acting, you're providing tacit support. And I will not do that.

Comments

[dirkcjelli.livejournal.com]

Would you agree that one reason for the systemic 2nd class status of women is the predominance of ideas along those lines in major religions? (Islam, Christianity, and Confusionism come immediately to mind as reinforcing female inferiority/submission as normative.)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I've been pondering this since you posted it. It's certainly a decent hypothesis, but that doesn't absolve individuals from agreeing with it. It also doesn't say where those religions got it from.

I was not aware of a male bias to Confucianism, but I don't know as much about it as I should.

[dirkcjelli.livejournal.com]

Well, the Abrahamic religions institutionalized the mores of tribal Semites (Judaism, Islam) and Greeks and Romans (Christianity). I'd say both were explicitly misogynistic... women were inferior, second class citizens when they weren't explicitly property.