In Pursuit of "Man Card Language": Episode I

At the encouragement of one Charles Clymer, I've gone about trying to discover what "man card language" is by exploring his blog. Nothing is going to stop me in my pursuit of knowledge! My first stop on Mr. Clymer's blog is a post called...let me see if I can get this right this time, "My Open Letter of Apology to Men's Rights Activists".

Within is the following statement:

"I want to apologize that life has never graced you (MRAs) with any feminists (men or women) who are friends. Some of the greatest folks I've had the pleasure of knowing are committed, brilliant feminists."

Since I am a feminist too, I figure I'd take a little detour in my quest for discovering  "man card language" and address this post. Who knows? Maybe can find the answers I need! Now, like any good feminist, I am in favor of full equality.

• That's why when I see men enjoying the privilege of selective service, I fully support cutting women in on the action too. Why should men hog all the privilege of having their lives threatened?

• That's why when I see different athletic standards for men and women in the military, I support ONE standard, not two, the normal one for men, and the easier one for women. Why should men hog all the privilege of having to work harder?

• That's why when I see across the pond in South Korea the draft for men only, I support the draft for everyone! Why should men hog all the privilege of putting their lives in danger at the point of a gun?

• That's why when I see that men make up 98% of war dead, I support dying in war for women too!  Why should men hog all the privilege of coming back home in pine boxes --- so Hillary can announce that the women who get to live on because of the protection those men afforded them, are the REAL victims of war? I am in favor of full pine-box equality.

• That's why when I see that women have reproductive rights and men only have reproductive obligations, I support outlawing abortion...or outlawing child-support in the absence of a contract. Whichever. But let's be consistent and above all, EQUAL about it. Why should men hog all the privilege of being financially obliged to support another person's choice over which they have next to no control?

• That's why when I see that 80% of the Senate, 82% of the House, 6 of 9 Supreme Court Justices, 2/3 of the Presidential Cabinet, and 100% of every person to occupy the Oval Office and VP's chair "being" male, cannot be conflated with "favoring" males --- when they pass into law/sanction such things as the above. Since Charles and I are both feminists, I am sure he can understand that our inherent maleness does not mean we will consistently take actions that favor men over women. After all, why should men hog all the privilege of granting feminists special interest favors and special rights and disenfranchising men in general? It would all be so much more "equal" if there were more women in positions of power doing the exact same thing and getting the exact same results. 

• That why when I see that 100% of mothers are women, I support government sponsored organ transplants so that men can also have babies...it's the socially just thing to do!

When we talk about statistics, we can talk all day. The majority of child custody decisions being won by women, the majority of arrests in DV incidents being men, even when it is the man who called the police to protect himself from the woman. What do they call that policy? "Predominant aggressor", if I remember correctly. Arresting men for being men sounds very patriarchal to me! Well...what else does Charles have in this nifty post. Ah CEOs!

You know, while 95% of F500 CEO's may be men, 99.9% of men are not F500 CEO's...and what's to be done about that? Oh my! I mean, I'm not a F500 CEO. And if I were, maybe I would be a woman's advocate even though I am a man. How can we tell which men are oppressors and which are not? And what about education where there are so many more female teachers than male? Surely if we are to socially engineer more Marissa Mayers, we must boot out some female teachers in favor of male teachers. After all, those women must be using their inherent woman-ness to feminize our young boys, right?

Anyway, why is it desirable that more women be CEO's? Doesn't each individual woman get to make that decision? They are just as free to pursue that career as men are, and have been for some time. So, perhaps there is something else going on here than *insert patriarchy*? Could it be that people value different things, and those values tend to be chosen and expressed based on influences like culture, gender, biology, physical capacities and nationality?

So if we can observe that women tend to value flexibility due to the assumption that they will one day have a child which requires it, doesn't it follow that they will make very different decisions than men, who cannot carry a child and thereby that circumstance does not affect their values?

For example, if 99% of deep sea crab fishermen are men, is that because the industry is patriarchial, (is that a word? Who cares!) or is that because it is a grueling job that far fewer women are suitable to do than men, and even fewer women desire, based on their valuation of flexibility and shorter hours?

And when one values flexibility and comfort, one is doing less work. And as such, one is justly paid less, in the same way that men who do less work than other men generally get paid less. --- even in the same industry and with the same experience --- good heavens!

As for when it is actually equal, it turns out it can never really be equal because of anti-discrimination laws:

Even in environments where the workload is similar between men and women, there is a constant threat to the productivity of businesses by a woman's capacity to have children. If a woman takes maternity leave, someone has to do her work while she is gone. Meaning, some man or fully-devoted career-woman must step up and take her place for a time. And that has a cost. A cost that is mitigated by her being paid less to begin with. Perhaps if she could make it clear that she has no intent to have children, she would be paid the same --- unfortunately this mechanism by which women can be paid equally has been determined by many governments to be discriminatory --- you can't ask those questions in a job interview. Thus, in the name of "protecting women from discrimination" we have ended up denying them freshly made tacos, or whatever. Not to mention that studies have shown that generally, women don't ask for more! And if you don't ask, why would you get paid more?

All that aside, when we make a truly EQUAL comparison: and eliminate all the variables affecting pay, and take a look at childless single men and women in their 40's ---- we find out that women are actually paid MORE. You know, cause, if women were making significantly less than men, would it not be a great idea to get a whole staff of women to do the same work for at a fraction of the price? Take that, patriarchal competitor-oppressors! It's capitalism at its finest! Why is no one doing this?! Maybe because the wage gap is a lie.

As Uncle Warren says:

"But what happens when women make the same lucrative decisions typically made by men? The good news — for women, at least: Women actually earn more. For example, when a male and a female civil engineer both stay with their respective companies for ten years, travel and relocate equally and take the same career risks, the woman ends up making more. And among workers who have never been married and never had children, women earn 117% of what men do. (This factors in education, hours worked and age.)Without husbands, women have to focus on earning more. They work longer hours, they're willing to relocate and they're more likely to choose higher-paying 

fields like technology. Without children, men have more liberty to earn less — that is, they are free to pursue more fulfilling and less lucrative careers, like writing or art or teaching social studies.". 

117% of what men do? Wow! And all ruthlessly sourced and documented in his book? Where's the social justice police when you need'em! Everyone was in this big rush before for some equality...now suddenly it got real quiet in here...

....well, anyway, I didn't learn anything about "man card language" so far, but this is all very interesting, isn't it?