[RD] The Gender Empathy Gap

[Traitorfish]

See in the other thread, where I said that men's rights activism is essentially that strain of anti-feminism which adopts the forms and language of liberal egalitarianism?

Well, I think the term "empathy gap" proves my point better than I ever could.

 

[Ryika]

What about the empathy gap has anything to do with anti-feminism? Feminism was not at all the topic of the thread, and the discussion was actually pretty ideology-neutral I would say, until metatron made a joke (one that made fun of a certain attributes many feminists show, but nobody claimed that feminists are somehow responsible for the empathy gap), and then Bamspeedy forced his feminist theory nonsense into the thread, at which point, yeah, of course things started to revolve around that religion of his.

That's not anti-feminists having a discussion, that's people having a discussion until a feminist brought in his religious beliefs. It's like when you discuss the history of the earth and then a creationist comes in and is like: "Actually, the Earth is only 6000 years old." - of course he'll get people respond to him condescendingly, doesn't mean the people who were having that discussion are associated with anti-theism.

 

[Bamspeedy]

that's people having a discussion until a feminist brought in his religious beliefs.

This is hilarious. Several months ago in response to someone saying "men can be victims too" I posted an ad (serious, no joke) that acknowledged that and I get called a MRA.
Now I just cut to the chase and get to point of what the thread starter really was after in his 4 recent threads "Men have it terrible" and I get called a feminist.

 

[Ryika]

This is hilarious. Several months ago in response to someone saying "men can be victims too" I posted an ad (serious, no joke) that acknowledged that and I get called a MRA.
Now I just cut to the chase and get to point of what the thread starter really was after in his 4 recent threads "Men have it terrible" and I get called a feminist.

Your post sounds more like "Men can be victims, buuuut that's because of the all-encompassing patriarchy, and actually, here, here, look at women who are the real victims, don't forget that! Got it? Women: The real victims. Men: Victims, too. But not as much as women, that's the really important thing that I'm pointing out here. Men: Victims. Women: Actual victims. Also, it's men doing the violence so <somehow that's important for the point of male victims>." to me.

 

[Yeekim]

Being a whiny ***** has apparently become an entirely gender- neutral thing. Yay!

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[Bamspeedy]

Your post sounds more like "Men can be victims, buuuut that's because of the all-encompassing patriarchy, and actually, here, here, look at women who are the real victims, don't forget that! Got it? Women: The real victims. Men: Victims, too. But not as much as women, that's the really important thing that I'm pointing out here. Men: Victims. Women: Actual victims. Also, it's men doing the violence so <somehow that's important for the point of male victims>." to me.

Maybe I'm prejudicial from the comment previously made that was, paraphrased, "How can a system designed by men, that is supposed to help men, actually have negative consequences for some men" make me view some posts and threads that are bringing up pretty mudane slights against men as 'evidence' of the 'terrible plight of men'.

I'm staying out of the family thread as that is a more serious topic than bias in news reports.

 

[civver_764]

I'm staying out of the family thread as that is a more serious topic than bias in news reports.

The idea is not just "bias in news reports", the idea is that there IS a real empathy gap between boys and girls and that this leads to real problems for boys.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I have no empathy for idiots. Does that have consequences for them? If it does I don't care, as I have no empathy for them.

 

[Traitorfish]

What about the empathy gap has anything to do with anti-feminism?

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[Ryika]

I think I misunderstood your point then, was your argument that he is an example of an anti-feminist using the "language of feminism" to talk about issues that affect men, instead of him using the language as a way to discredit feminists?

If so, then I don't really understand your concern. Adopting the language that is already being used by people is a good way to inject your own points to the discussion. In fact, I would say it's a way of making the discussion progress. His opinion is clearly different from those who usually use the language, so him using that language to inject new thoughts into the dialog seems to be a good thing to me.

It could only be a bad thing if you thought that the language feminists use is manipulative, and that he's making use of it for his own gain, but then the fight would be against those who use the language to great effect, not against those who adopt it to get a piece of the cake, too - or that you don't want him to be part of the dialog.

 

[civver_764]

So it was brought up that the comparison in the OP was a bit like apples and oranges. It turns out there is a more apples to apples comparison available. Boko Haram has kidnapped 10,000 boys. This is 50 times more than the 200 girls kidnapped for the #bringbackourgirls campaign, yet I bet it received much more than 50 times less media coverage. To me, this is a much more clear-cut example of the gender empathy gap. What can we do about this?

I think raising awareness is an obvious first step. I'd wager most people don't even realize this gap exists, or at least we're conditioned to accept it. As it stands, the world is a much more dangerous place for males than females, and I bet the empathy gap has a lot to do with that.

I have no empathy for idiots. Does that have consequences for them? If it does I don't care, as I have no empathy for them.

I'm afraid I don't understand your point Sir Tim, unless you are saying men are all idiots and thus less deserving of empathy?