I'll look for that documentary. If I can't find it online, I bet the library has a copy.
That's true, and it's hard to objectively evaluate your behaviors when you've been steeped in a society that condones wrong behaviors. I think many men truly don't mean to be harmful or demeaning, but they genuinely can't see how they're doing that. I remember back in 9th grade when my creative writing class was reading The House on Mango Street and we had a discussion on the scene where the main character is raped - and NONE of the guys in class could see why it was such a bad thing. A couple of them finally seemed to at least grasp that it wasn't good when our teacher said to imagine how they'd feel if someone had done it to their sister or mother, but that relationship implies a bit of ownership to the average guy, so I think they were more offended over the idea of someone else touching something they considered, in a way, 'theirs.'
Most people aren't morally concerned with what's right or wrong or just, they're only concerned with what's accepted. If something's 'normal' it must be fine, right? Ugh.
So I do think analytical capability - or maybe just tendency - plays a huge role in social problems like this. If you ask the average person why society does a particular thing a particular way, their answer would probably be something like, 'I don't know... That's just what we do.' Which isn't good enough. It is as long as the action in question benefits you, but if it doesn't, well... I at least find myself wishing people would take a closer look at the way they and their society functions. My number one complaint about humanity is that, on a whole, it's absolute shit at analyzing data.
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It makes perfect sense!
Date: 2011-08-31 06:07 am (UTC)That's true, and it's hard to objectively evaluate your behaviors when you've been steeped in a society that condones wrong behaviors. I think many men truly don't mean to be harmful or demeaning, but they genuinely can't see how they're doing that. I remember back in 9th grade when my creative writing class was reading The House on Mango Street and we had a discussion on the scene where the main character is raped - and NONE of the guys in class could see why it was such a bad thing. A couple of them finally seemed to at least grasp that it wasn't good when our teacher said to imagine how they'd feel if someone had done it to their sister or mother, but that relationship implies a bit of ownership to the average guy, so I think they were more offended over the idea of someone else touching something they considered, in a way, 'theirs.'
Most people aren't morally concerned with what's right or wrong or just, they're only concerned with what's accepted. If something's 'normal' it must be fine, right? Ugh.
So I do think analytical capability - or maybe just tendency - plays a huge role in social problems like this. If you ask the average person why society does a particular thing a particular way, their answer would probably be something like, 'I don't know... That's just what we do.' Which isn't good enough. It is as long as the action in question benefits you, but if it doesn't, well... I at least find myself wishing people would take a closer look at the way they and their society functions. My number one complaint about humanity is that, on a whole, it's absolute shit at analyzing data.