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Old 03-19-2008, 07:14 PM   #20 (permalink)
Angela
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It's the polarity between man and woman. Male: strong, rational, mature. Woman: more emotional, child-like, intuitive.
When you say that men are strong, rational, and mature, and women are different from men, it follows that you are saying that women are neither strong, rational, nor mature (or at least less so than men). You can see how that sounds like a sexist statement, right? Those are not "roles" that people are born into -- they are ways of being that either sex can take on as a matter of choice; one sex does not have more a propensity towards them than the other. (with the exception, arguably, of physical strength.)

When sexist beliefs are adopted as The Truth, I think, that's when it's easy to rationalize things like paying women less for the same work, or for men to feel stopped in trusting their intuition, or for a person to feel inadequate or pressured because they're not acting like a real (wo)man.
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