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That was a very condescending response to me, Dig. Glad to know you still care.
Frankly, if that's your takeaway from it, then I'm just really disappointed. Because if I didn't think you were worth educating, I wouldn't bother.
I'm gonna put my full hand on the table and say this - I cannot respect intelligent people who refuse to examine their own privilege and the systems that oppress other people. It comes across to me as being so incredibly callous, and I can't stand it. I deal with too much ********* I watch people I care about deal with too much ********* and I watch that ******** just grow over time.
Literally the only reason I'd bother with this conversation, instead of doing literally anything else, is because I believe you are worth my time, intelligent, and that you'd be able to see this if you hadn't buried yourself in an echo chamber. You weren't going to examine it otherwise, and I'm not particularly interested in losing my respect for you, so I tried.
But fine. You're literally not even interested in trying. So I'm out.
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Are you serious right now? No, really, are you? The reason women compete for male affection is because we (men?) train them to hate each other? Seriously? And I suppose the reason we men fight for female affection is in no way the women's fault, right?
I said "we" for a reason.
Women are active players in maintaining patriarchy. You don't get removed from being a part of the mechanisms that reinforce male supremacy just because you're female - women are very actively part of the system. For instance, they're a HUGE part in how our children are educated, so when girls are taught to be quiet and respectful- aka "ladylike"- but boys are encouraged to be dominant and aggressive, women are usually the ones reinforcing those gender roles.
People act against their own interest all the time. That's why the Republican Party is still a thing.
We don't have any scientific evidence for biological processes that lead women to compete for male attention (and for most other animals, males compete for female attention). And we've looked.
Psychology definitely reinforces that idea, absolutely, but that's within the context of our culture. They aren't studying whether or not it's intrinsic, they're examining behaviors.
The argument of feminism is that, by placing social, political, and economic value almost entirely on men, human culture developed to the point where women were expected to win the game for male attention in most avenues of life. As romantic partners is the obvious one, since the importance of a woman (and therefore her power) was passed to her through her husband. But it also applies to all other forms of patronage.