Viliam_Bur comments on The Power of Reinforcement - Less Wrong

96 Post author: lukeprog 21 June 2012 01:42PM

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Comment author: Viliam_Bur 23 June 2012 10:08:47AM *  4 points [-]

Just an observation of sexism in our society. We are hypersensitive about anything negative that happens to women (it is a great opportunity for signalling moral superiority above people who are not outraged), while misfortunes of low-status males are just funny (signalling care about them is low-status).

How exactly does this happen? How exactly appears the paradox that this unequal reaction is percieved as fair, while complaining about it can be so easily labeled as sexist?

There is an obvious evolutionary explanation (low-status males are expendable, there is no advantage for high-status males or any-status females to care about them), but how does the algorithm feel from inside? First, there is a rationalization that problems of low-status males are either not real, or could (and should) be easily avoided by them, so if they don't avoid the situations, they obviously deserve the consequences. (Unless they are members of some minority, in which case it is OK to express moral outrage about the opression of given minority.) Second, we are hyper-sensitivised by feminism about everything related to women, because even the smallest joke means that you are a supporter of patriarchy and rape culture, which makes you a complice in every abuse and murder and whatever. There are no innocent jokes about women. Saying your wife "thank you" for doing something nice for you is just a first step on a slippery slope of evil male behavior. (And no, there is no female privilege, and if you have a misunderstood word, go read feminism 101 until you accept it.)

There. Sorry for the mindkilling, I don't know how to write it better without spending too big part of a weekend online.

EDIT: related video

Comment author: [deleted] 25 June 2012 06:53:03PM *  12 points [-]

And no, there is no female privilege, and if you have a misunderstood word, go read feminism 101 until you accept it.

I seem to recall having seen at least one introduction to feminism which did acknowledge that there are forms of female privilege (e.g. children usually end up with the mother after divorces), even though far fewer than forms of male privilege (their list was about an order of magnitude shorter). (This made me find that introduction much more credible, as otherwise it would have failed Policy Debates Should Not Appear One-Sided.)

Comment author: Viliam_Bur 25 June 2012 07:29:57PM 2 points [-]

I would have more respect for such introduction, too, for pretty much the same reasons.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 25 June 2012 08:32:33PM 0 points [-]

There are several such, but they don't tend to inspire quite as strong a reaction as the ones the OC is reacting to.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 23 June 2012 02:46:18PM 1 point [-]

OK. Thanks for being explicit.