General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It is not about the swimsuit issue it is about basic respect for women [View all]KitSileya
(4,035 posts)All minority groups learn very quickly to be conversant both in their own 'language' and that of the majority group's 'language' - it is often necessary for survival. I am sure black people know exactly how white people can behave and how they feel, and how they will react to different things - how they *can* react to different things in ways that black people can't. Just witness the scores and scores of black parents teaching their sons how to behave when confronted by the police/by a vigilante/when in a car accident (I could go on for ages) when these self-same sons know intimately, through mainstream media, through conversations among and with white people, through their education, etc what white people think reasonable behavior in face of these situations is - for white people. ("I would have refused to give my name, man/Just ignore them/You should go to the nearest house and knock and ask for help if you're ever in a car accident"
Women know more about how it is being a man simply because a man's perspective has been the default in most of our culture. Read a book (from any age). See a movie. Watch television. Watch commercials and read ads. Most of it is from a man's point of view. There isn't yet a part of culture that shows women's reality as it is, yet is also impossible to avoid for men. Much of women's reality is glossed over in these media because the male writers cannot grasp it and women writers are such a minority that they cannot risk their jobs to portray it. Whenever a woman in a movie decides to leave a party/their boyfriend's car/whatever in the middle of the night, and starts walking home? That is a man's perspective. Whenever a woman on television wears a low-cut blouse to work without a moment's contemplation of the reaction she might get? That is the perspective of someone who doesn't have to think about being judged about the sexual response to his appearance.
Men don't see women's point of view, but we see plenty of yours. We speak 'man' too, but when we try to teach you to speak 'woman', like we did with the SI SI cover, and the objectification threads, and all the other 'gender war' threads? Well, you can read the result - too many do not want to hear how we experience these things, and so we get shouted down.