The opinions are coming from a 1/2 Caucasian guy that is an outsider looking in
Feminism and the women’s rights movement is a bit different than in other places. Except for the few blue towns, of which one could recognize the women’s rights movement (abortion, the rights to vote, etc.) the rest of the state was kinda “silent” and not take an extreme position; but I have noticed that feminism in my state is radically different.
It’s a given if you’re a female you can do literally whatever you want. Theoretically. This state has been female dominant for a while. While I admit being lazy and not doing a search, it’s been to the perception of a 51/49% of our population. Even if it’s just a percent above half; it’s prevent enough for our state government to have a Commission on the Status of Men; the only state in the country to have a men’s rights commission in state government. Many others (especially our neighbors) have a Commission on the Status of Women.
Most of the people in our state of voting age are Generation X and the Silent Generation, the two generations that are the least tolerant or understanding to the movements. The younger GenX was born (or was too young) around the time of the movement. While I used to make fun of Millennials and the world-began-when-I-was-born, Xers believed that America moved on, and economic prosperity was the most important issue as if the economy could correct social issues. With a charm like Ronald Regan, for many of those groups of people; it’s easy to feel-good-in-name-only.
Silents on the other hand, didn’t believe social issues was a concern, that’s why they are so conservative and old school. This mantra has been seen by my peer generation, there’s probably more people like me who are technically a Millennial age; than typical people. Silents/Xers never felt there would need to be a hands-on approach to retain the rights of females and the other civil rights movements. As a result, problems such as injustices to Black and brown people have re-appeared and the ongoing #MeToo era (which I still think this is an ongoing issue, when you have feminists that literally say a “post-#MeToo”, I think that ‘s too optimistic even for liberal types.
Women today (I’d say in the last 25 years) have had it really easy. We’ve had 2 Governors, 3 US Senators (2 were from the Governor’s Office); women have dominated our media; our single media outlets (since there is no competition); and women can get a lot of media attention solely because of their gender. The media in our state gives people the rights of power, but never questions the responsibility of their authority, they believe everything they say. Kelly (Not Related to Steven) Ayotte had violated our Right to Know Law (allegedly) as the top prosecutor of this state in 2010, the largest newspaper let go of the lead, so she could be one of those females to be elected Senator in 2010.
Men do not have it easy in this state especially when the media traditionally for at least a couple decades would lead on the A-block, the above the fold on the A-section, or the 7:01 am story on the newsbreak on the radio as the guy behind the trivial street crime. This would scare women, and sequentially their children, since said groups are apparently the most vulernable. A lot of times in these overblown stories (more overblown than today’s outrage against “the media”) this fear was so instilled that I blame our 3 media outlets (again without competition or challenging their authority) to be grossly ill responsible to instill fear. And you wonder why there are so many mama-bear, overprotecting, illtolerant offsprings they have done to this state? They’ll piss on the 3 letter networks as “the media” is so bad, but yet any 6 letter call signs, do no wrong. They are the authoritative information for our state.
Feminism does have different meanings, and there’s a conservative type of feminism, the freedom to be feminine or a female and not have any responsibility if they go too agressive in a similar fashion a male did it. Ironically this type of feminism will back up any #MeToo infractions. It’s almost as if they are put on a pedestal and we are supposed to bow down to that pedestal. How the hell is that “progress”?
This was something that was way back in my mind during the days of A Puzzling View that took a decade later to articulate; because our world is so backass now.