I found a new blogger today: To Miss With Love One of her posts, titled Damn White People has particularly caught my eye. It's also made some people angry.
For my own two cents, I'm very much behind what she's saying. At the beginning of November, there was an initiative on my state's ballot to get rid of the Affirmative Action laws in the state. It didn't pass, and I'm sad for that. Sad, because by the very act of having such laws, we imply that folks of minority aren't qualified for job X, because of their genetics. I can appreciate the reasons Affirmative Action laws were created in the first place, but aren't we past them yet?
Part of the reason I was such a tomboy as a kid and teen was because the double standard of gender pissed me off. I had a guy friend who didn't get this. He'd treat me in a particular way because I was female. Things like censoring his language, holding the door open for me, etc. One time we were playing chess. He, the much better chess player, kept letting me win because it was the "gentlemanly" thing to do. Yeah, I wanted to win, but I wanted to beat him, not be let to win. I could have smacked him.
Double standards are inherently insulting, no matter what type of double standard they are. As someone standing on the "Old Whitey" side of the fence, I am a little concerned of how my comments will be perceived (arrogant? prejudiced?), but Snuffy's commentary hit home with me, because though she's talking about race, the same principle can be applied to gender. I don't want to be treated "special" just because I have boobs. It's insulting.
Once upon a time, my dad proposed to my mom, saying "No wife of mine will ever work a day in her life." My mom looked him right in the eye and said, "Then I'm not going to be your wife." As you can guess, they worked things out, but I never would have happened if my dad had held on to the double standard.
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