“Tought leaders” of the Philippine Opposition don’t do their cause any favours by constantly playing the Woman Card whenever they feel offended. Real feminists, after all, fought hard for “gender equality”. By that, we presume, women would like to be on equal footing with men. I wonder if they really know the core essence of what that means.
Men are competitive by nature — which is why sport is dominated by men and still remains widely-regarded as a “guy thing”. Video games are even more dominated by men and this considers, perhaps, the fact that most video game themes involve winning by crushing an enemy. In short men like games, particularly contests where there are clear victors and where becoming a victor entails beating the other guy. A decisively beaten enemy by that definition no longer poses a threat to the winner — which is why the definition of a winner in a man’s vocabulary is elegantly simple.
In that regard, there are really clear differences between men and women. Men like beating people and dominating a realm. Women, on the other hand, prefer to get along with one another and share their realm. Bringing this context to the Internet and, specifically, the Philippines’ online political discourse raises some interesting things. It is evident that much of the chatter surrounding a “need” for a strong and congenial “social media community” is dominated by women’s voices. Yet despite years of trying to come up with a “united” community of Netizens focused on using social media for “social good”, the digital landscape remains a fragmented wasteland of cliques battling one another for ascendancy. Interestingly, within these cliques are even more vicious catfights between certain types of people (I’d get in trouble if I were even a wee bit more descriptive than “certain types”) scratching each others’ faces out with bared claws.
The short of it is that men relish a fight and walk into battles expecting to be perceived to be strong and deserving of a decisive win. This is different from the trademark notion of Laban (also literally “fight”) associated with the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the Yellowtard) leadership of today’s Opposition. Yellowtards go to battle under their Laban banner wanting to be perceived to be weak but righteous and expecting to be made victims of and then, as a result of that victimhood, come out as some sort of perverse “winner”. Compare a man’s notion of a fight (the earlier) and the Yellowtards’ notion of a “fight” (the latter). The striking difference lies in just how logically-convoluted the latter narrative is. The Yellowtard definition of “winning”, in that regard, is not elegantly simple.
What does all this have to do with feminism? Well, it’s simple really. The worst thing for a man is to find out he won because his enemy pulled punches. That would make winning in such a fight (in the real sense of the word) a hollow victory. Consider, in that regard, the way “feminists” play the Woman Card whenever something in politics doesn’t quite go their way. Oppostion “thought leaders” have, of late, been highlighting that Duterte takes issue with or, we are told, is even “frightened” of strong women. So far, several prominent “heroes” have been set upon a pedestal by the Yellowtards for all to worship — they are (somewhat in chronological order of elevation), presumptive “vice president” Leni Robredo, jailed “Senator” Leila De Lima, bullied “blogger” Jover Laurio, failed “CEO” Maria Ressa, and banned “reporter” Pia Ranada.
Hey, look, all of them are women!
Yes, they happen to be women. That they happen to be women, to be fair, should neither make them more entitled to heroic veneration nor accord them special treatment. They are people who happen to be women — at least that is, how I understand, real feminists ought to be regarding them. Extend that logic further and it becomes evident that highlighting the gender of these bozos (i.e. playing the Woman Card on their behalf) only serves to undermine the true essence of gender equality. Habitual highlighting what gender a person happens to be runs counter to a key pillar of the feminist cause: gender neutrality.
In short, bozos who habitually play the Woman Card in the midst of a fight should be asked this question:
Is it because you want punches to be pulled?
What kind of victory do women want in the battles they walk into emboldened by 21st Century feminism? Politics is a battlefield and the fact that cannot be changed about that battlefield is, it had traditionally been (and still is) dominated by men. Do women expect men to pull punches when faced with an adversary who happens to be female. The answer to that question depends on how substantial people want their victories to be.
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