The Predicament of the Respective Genders - Research Paper Example

It is quite difficult to compare and critique articles when both of them made sense each arguing reasonably about the predicament of their respective genders. For the male, the points that were raised may be not that often told but they were nevertheless valid. Indeed society has a lot of expectations from the male gender and if they fail, they will be solely blamed for it. Despite the putative privileges attributed to the gender by the feminists, facts say otherwise because they seemed to be living a very stressful life. In the extreme, the males are more inclined to take their own lives five times more during their teenage years to their early twenties compared to the females. Speaking of living a privileged life, their lives does not seem to be privileged considering that the males are more likely to be abused physically by their parents, drops out of school and face unemployment. In their adult life, males are also more likely to be homeless, and to become dependent to alcohol and drugs. The females may be complaining about assault and violence but males are in fact twice as much more susceptible to it than females. When they work, their chance to get killed due to work related accident is nine times more than the female and they die six years earlier on the average. Worst, nobody seems to care. Their issues are often their own while the female can go blame society for their failures. For the female part, we already heard their predicament all too well yet their plights were as true as they were first raised eons ago. Yes, gender discrimination still exists and sexism is still prevalent despite the campaign against it. Stevie Cameron best demonstrated it by using our daughter as the character that would best personify our anxieties and hopes about the females. There, it was illustrated how unfair and discriminating the male dominated society is. Beginning at school where girls’ facilities are not given that much importance compared to boys such as the relegation of gymnastics to football. When they grew up, their moves are restricted both literally and figuratively. They cannot just walk to places wherever they want and during their adult life, their movements in their respective careers are also restricted by the glass ceiling. They are also subjected to sexist snide aspersions not only with remarks but also on downplaying issues that matter to them. These issues and concerns, I believe are more important than the predicament of the males. It is because the females’ issues are rooted in discrimination which society relegates them as secondary citizen just because of their gender. This discrimination is a very serious issue and has overarching consequences to every aspect of their lives not just the simple “they are girls and we are boys’ issues”. This discrimination pervades in every sphere of our society that women has to contend just because of their female gender. Compared to the males where the issue they have to contend are the stress brought upon by the competitive patriarchal society and being such, are more tolerable than discrimination because competiveness is self-imposed. Their fall out, such as their higher probability in facing economic dislocation (unemployment, homelessness, etch) as well as the stereotyping of their intelligence are a result of their laxity towards education that dumb down their intellectual acumen. Whereas with the females, they are being restricted no matter how hard they try just because of their gender. Worst, they inadvertently became victim of assault, sexual or otherwise, where a troubled man in Montreal took it to the extreme when he separated the women from the men and slaughtered them because he believed that women are the cause of his troubles. Men do not get these issues out of their gender. Many men have been victimized by assault also but it is not related to gender. For example, their increased probability to be attacked is a consequence of their reckless mobility. If you walk alone in unlit park or alley in a very unholy hour, chances are, you will be robbed or attacked regardless of your gender. It is only men who get this issue because it is only them who have the temerity to walk into compromising places during unholy hours because of their privilege of increased mobility. Thus, they register to have a higher probability of being assaulted as a natural consequence of their greater physical mobility compared to women. Such, if we weigh down the seriousness of these two gender issues, women’s predicament of being discriminated is more serious than the men who get assaulted more often due to the natural consequence of their privileges. With regard to the male population’s issue that they die earlier than women, it is because they imposed undue pressure to themselves that they have to perform in all aspect of life. Had they learned to share their “putative power” and delegated some of it and did not perceive women as a secondary citizen, and forget the notion that they have to outperform women all the time, life would not have been that stressful for them and lived longer. Their “hardships” or “difficulties” are in fact self-imposed and being such, cannot be equated as more important to women’s gender issues of being left out. Perhaps, the male gender’s statistic of higher incidence of being economically dislocated and higher probability being stressed out will improve (that meant will go down) if they learn to treat women as co-equal and relieve themselves of the unnecessary stress that they have to outdo the females all the time to the point of discriminating them. When women are given the same chances as men, their achievement does not necessarily mean the deprivation of opportunities away from men. The success of women could even be beneficial to the males if they took them as partners in life. The economic dislocation of men and their increased homelessness are just a result of the absence of “social safety net” during their economic hardships. If they had women in their lives which are economically capable, either as a wife, girlfriend, mothers, sisters or partners, the males would have been assisted in their economic recovery that it would not be necessary for them to be economically dislocated during an economic hardship. Corollary with this, their stress level would have also gone down that will make them live a happier and longer lives. Read More