Saturday, December 5, 2009

My Thoughts

In such a gender-balanced society, with women in a far more prominent role than that of, for example, the 1950s, I feel many of the biological issues women face that affect their ability to cope or think logically permeate much of society’s general mentality, and alter it for the worse.

For instance, take the act of “PMSing”. Obviously, the woman who is facing this symptom is not to blame, as the distress the woman experiences is a result of multiple biological interworkings, such as a lack of sleep, overworking, along with a largely dissatisfying lifestyle, where sexual desire and cravings are compromised for late hours, and mere coffee breaks. But when women are socially, yet unwillingly accepted when encountering these symptoms, surely some men may learn from the outcome of the erratic behavior, and perceive it to be advantageous, later implementing such a behavior into his own repertoire of emotions or states of mind.

While mindless conduct is not always met with gratification, short attention spans in this high-octane, fast-paced, ever-changing society in which we live are. The way I see it is that men oftentimes take a more relaxed, considerate pace to their work, while women are constantly tackling new goals, with little thought or value as to what is being accomplished. Of course, I am generalizing, which has much to do with sexism, and the way all of us perceive the opposite, or even possibly, our own sex. The largely platonic way we view the opposite sex relates to those around us, and the media that time and time again ensures the reinforcement of gender-specific stereotypes. Take a divorced woman with two children and a dead-end job, working for slightly more than minimum wage. If that woman’s husband served as the primary breadwinner, earning a great deal more than the woman, without a doubt, after bearing that divorce she must be bitter or prejudice towards men even though her children may be both male – understanding all men, indiscriminately, as “pigs”.

One must assume that in all forms of media, there is at least one sector of the audience that cannot see through the fictitious qualities of maybe a joke, a story, or even a stand-up comedian’s portrayal of a racial stereotype. By that account, our society is impacted indirectly; people form slight prejudices or even build connotations towards men, women, Asians, Europeans, Africans, North Americans, South Americans, what ever. If you were speaking through a phone to a man or woman you have never encountered in person, with little indication through your accent or the way you form sentences, and said “I am half Czech, and half Italian” (which in my case, I am), people are inevitably going to go down a path of assumptions. He or she may ask, “Do you by any chance, have a relative named Nicky?”, in which case, I would reply with a resounding, “Yes”.

So all in all, let me go out with a bang: all prejudices, stereotypes, personifications, discriminations, aversions, partialities, examples of racism, revulsions, abhorrence, or cases in which we may witness sexism, feminism, or even masculinism for that matter are all shaped by our past experiences, both the good and bad, and are not justified positions in which we may slouch in, merely to seek acceptance or a sound state of mind. We must acknowledge and respect the views of others, and to not rely on these preconceived notions that supposedly may bear any evidence or value in life – all people are distinctly unique regardless of class, race, and age, and we must be profoundly comfortable with that thought.