Equality Set Back

[Sukerkin]

I read this article on the BBC this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21127073

It gels with a feeling I've had for sometime that the 'official' steps forward in sexual equality are being eroded by an ever increasing objectification of women in media of all sorts. A canvass of 'impossibly' good looking women fills billboards, TV, the Net and newspapers. That imagery is also becoming more and more erotic and it's ubiquity is such that even those of us who were brought up in a less explicit generation do not see it any more.

Add to that what the young, with their facility to adapt to new technologies easily, can access without effort on the Web and it is no wonder that girls are starting to find themselves in situations where they are pressured into being exploited.

How do we recover form this slide before it is too late and we lose generations of the young onto a path that is not healthy for either them or the society they are going to create?

 

[Uncle]

The only way you can change what you're trying to change is by going back to a more conservative, traditionalist culture. Unfortunately this is not something you can really actively do as it is a massive undertaking and not something that's really achievable. Even if you could do it actively people would rebel against it. Also most traditionalist cultures have equality issues.

What you could do is looks at countries where there's actually more gender equality and try to emulate them.

 

[ballen0351]

What you could do is looks at countries where there's actually more gender equality and try to emulate them.

What places do you think are better?

 

[celtic_crippler]

Like so many topics being discussed currently on this forum, it reflects society's overall decline in values.

It did not happen over night. It requires a return to values at the individual level first before it would have an effect on society as a whole. I suppose something would have to inspire a majority of parents to adjust their course so that they would begin passing it on to their children.

Now, what that "something" is I do not know. Some would argue a return to Christian values in the West. But I do not know if that is possible any longer with the stigma attached to Christianity these days. I recieved my first degree from a Military College where it was required that everyone take an Ethics class. Perhaps an introduction to this subject early in public education would lead to something positive?

 

[ballen0351]

Sex sells.....
Until we decide I don't need to look at a half naked womanto decide which beer I want to drink this won't change

 

[Sukerkin]

Very good points, CC. I agree that this is a change that has to grow from within rather than be imposed from the top down to the population at large; tho' maybe a seed could be sown with a bit of regulation of advertising imagery (just picking that as an example).

Individual responsibility is something I was brought up with along with such values as "If you want something, you work for it" or "If you do something wrong/break something, you make amends". The related attributes of politeness, respect for others and good manners are of course going to vary from country to country and generation to generation but you can't go far wrong with treating others as you would like them to treat you.

These are things that seem to have gradually gone by the wayside, with each generation of parents passing on a reduced expectation onto their children as to what is acceptable.

The worst of all that I observe tho', as noted in the OP, is how girls are beginning to be pushed back into being 'property' or 'product' again - that is an outrageous thing to happen in a society that prides itself as being one of the old-school arbiters of civilisation.

 

[WC_lun]

The values of people today are not any worse than in years past, for the most part. There are extremes in certain individuals, but as a society I think our collective ethics might be better. We no longer prosecute people for being gay, we no longer hang black men without a trial, we no longer as public policy treat people differently because of thier skin color, police are no longer allowed to coerce confession through physical force, for the most part our poor are no longer left to die if needing medical care, etc. Or are you saying those things were part of a social morality that was better than today? Resist the urge to look at the past with rose colored glasses. There was plenty wrong in the past.

 

[Sukerkin]

Something of a 'follow up' article of sorts from the BBC on this subject:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21990043

 

[Big Don]

How important are these values to people when they ignore the subhuman treatment women receive in places like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, etc?
Shouldn't people be speaking out about that? The only celeb I have ever seen really put her money where her mouth is on this subject is Mavis Leno.

 

[granfire]

How important are these values to people when they ignore the subhuman treatment women receive in places like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, etc?
Shouldn't people be speaking out about that? The only celeb I have ever seen really put her money where her mouth is on this subject is Mavis Leno.

it's the same mindset.

don't kid yourself.


Oh, wait... I see some nasty remarks in my future:

I said it before, I tell you again:
A great many guys in the west do secretly admire the Middle eastern brethren for having their b****** all under control.

That includes the guy who can't handle the wife making more money, the guy with truck envy because the little lady from next door has that big shiney pickup he wants.

are all western men pigs?
no.
as not all Middle Eastern guys are a-holes who beat their wives and set them on fire....


But we are rapidly regressing.

Like so many things that were much more modern 20, 30 years ago...

 

[Sukerkin]

How important are these values to people when they ignore the subhuman treatment women receive in places like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, etc?
Shouldn't people be speaking out about that? The only celeb I have ever seen really put her money where her mouth is on this subject is Mavis Leno.

Where did you get that from, Don? Or rather, why did you think it was relevant to the subject of increasing sexual objectification in Britain and the effects that the teachers of the young are observing? Surely we can best expect to set our own house in order first? It's not that I don't agree that the emancipation of the other half of the human race is an absolute necessity for advancement of us as a species and for all our societies; I just don't see it as a logical link when we have to fix our own sewers before we shout at our neighbours for not fixing theirs.

I was sitting in a take-away, months back now, waiting for the food to be ready and I heard a boy, who could not have been out of Primary school (under eleven), sitting with his sister of about the same age talking about sexual acts that he would like to do to (rather than with) some girls he knew. Things, as a man who grew up in the 'paper' age rather than the digital, I had never even heard of until a good many years older than him. That utterly shocked me and was something of a personal revelation of just how bad things are getting. No wonder I am hearing that younger women no longer want to date men of their own age range because those 'men' have lost the art of wooing or romance and just want to get on with the 'nasty shagging' with zero emotional connection (tho' I am sure a lot of that is just salacious Interwebs drivel it is something I have heard first hand from women of my acquaintance, which lends it a little credence).