As I was watching Kimmel’s lecture I realized that the differences perpetuated by the media and society surrounding men and women were completely false. Men and women are not that different and I believe the best example of this is when Kimmel talks about how men doing household chores and parenting equally is beneficial for both men and women. While there are key differences between men and women, whether it is physical differences, attitude or how we deal with issues. However, women have changed so much in the past 30 years that they are closer to how men see the world. As Kimmel pointed out, women have an identity, their work conditions are slowly improving, their family and work lives are starting to become more balanced and women generally are not afraid to say what they are looking for sexually. All four of these things is what men basically already have.
Mainly, I think it is important for future generations to be raised and nurtured by a father and mother equally. It is shown kids are much healthier and happy and so are the adults. Not to get too personal, but my father was not as nurturing to younger brother, sister and myself and that has always been something I wanted to do differently when I became a parent. He didn’t do anything wrong but my parents followed the way parenting traditionally was thought to be. He worked all day, spent time with us when he got home while my mom took care of us during the day, cleaned the house and cooked dinner at night. Now she has a part-time job too, which is partially because we are all older now and she wants contribute in a way that is different from what she is used to.
Kimmel's point about men and women sharing childcare and housework is so, so important. I think it would go such a long way to help truly win real gender equality. In addition, I liked Kimmel's point about time spent with kids. It is not "quality time" but lots of time to really nurture a child.
ReplyDeleteYou mention that there are differences between the way men and women handle issues, but perhaps this is because of how we were taught to handle issues. Is this another questions of nature versus nurture? To men really want to cry but hold back because it is not "manly" enough?
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteI really admire how you shared part of your true life in your blog. I'm glad you feel comfortable enough with the class to share those personal things with us. As for the first paragraph I completely agree. I think women are progressing so much but rather than saying "how men view themselves" I sort of think it's how the world views men. A man (or woman) could say to someone "I view myself this way", but that makes no difference on how some random passerby might view that person. Same with a woman walking down the road... she could see a man and he could say "I'm a loving single father of 2, I work two jobs and still find time to spend time with my kids" and she might see him and just say "Oh he's a man, I bet he's a pig". This obviously works backwards also, a man could make any assumption about a woman and that's our biggest problem is that we all just assume.