Re: Saletan: gender justice more important than health
by
Careyagimon
10/15/2009, 2:35 PM
There is also the the unsupported conclusion that vaccinating only girls is somehow doing harm to womankind, in the same way as say, lack of suffrage. I don't doubt that the possibility exists, but I have yet to see any speculation of this sort in any articles. It's always "Hmm, division along the line of sex, QED it must be sexism."
If there was a limited sickle-cell anemia vaccine that was only given to African-Americans, there would be the same outrage. "Well, racism exists and it is bad, so... anything having to do with race must be due to racism!"
Discrimination means to tell two unlike things apart. Sexism is different from saying that there are indeed differences between the sexes. For example "Women, in general, tend to have more vaginas than men." Uh-oh, better call up the sexism-police.
People always jump to believing racism/sexism as the primary evils in the world. They are definitely real and dangerous, but I wonder about inflammatory articles like this one. People love to feel righteous about pointing out the big bad racist. Don't you feel so important now that you have done your part to vanquish a sexism phantom.