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Eliminating “dirty-work” offers to break down class barriers and unite men and women.
This is my second contribution to Dr. Simon Fokt’s debate on feminism (more links below). At the moment, Dr. Fokt is concerned that I am dividing men and women and I disagree.
Eliminating “dirty-work” offers to break down class barriers and unite men and women. In today’s society, everyone — without exception — depends on some people doing back-breaking, unpleasant, often dangerous, even deadly jobs (aka ““dirty-work” ”). If no one does the “dirty-work” our whole society collapses.
Not only are the people doing society’s “dirty-work” paid peanuts, society treats them like dirt. When people leave the workplace, they bring those experiences into their personal relationships. People who come home from work in pain, and mentally and emotionally drained, are not good partners for anyone.
When I was young, feminism was driven by upper-class white women seeking power, authority, status, and titles limited to white men (in corporate boardrooms, administration, political circles, etc.) In fact, feminists often told me that I was talking about union and labour issues — not feminism. And they were right.
In the world of labour unions, a raise was a raise for everyone doing the same job — and working people rose together. By the late 1960s, unions were making it possible for a whole lot of minorities and young women, like me, to rise above our circumstances, gain our independence, and earn college degrees (and the titles and power that came with them). To a noticeable degree, unions also helped reduce nepotism, racism, and sexism in promotion practices as well.
As more diverse people began enjoying fairness in the workplace, they produced results. By the 1990s, we finally started seeing women and minorities in positions of authority, with real power, including earning power. Unions and working people — men and women alike — made that progress possible for women — not feminism.
Today’s feminists are united around rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and women’s right to control their own bodies. As a result, men are finally confronting their own biological reality: Simply put, men cannot have children without a woman’s permission (talk about a…
