Writings on the Wall by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Author:Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liberty Street
Published: 2016-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

HOW IS GENDER DISCRIMINATION EVEN POSSIBLE?

The math just doesn’t add up. How can females, who make up 50.8 percent of the population in the U.S., be socially and economically enslaved when they have the sheer numbers to stop it?

Part of the reason is that most of the country—men and women—is yoked by archaic notions of gender roles that are detrimental to everyone. Men are big, strong protectors and providers; women are submissive nurturers. In the media, we’ve tinkered with those Ken-and-Barbie ideals through the portrayal of tough, smart, independent women who can kick ass physically and professionally. But not that much has really changed on Main Street.

A 2015 study in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin suggested that although men might say they like smart women, in reality they prefer not to date such women. In the first phase of the study, a questionnaire, 86 percent of the men said they would feel comfortable dating someone smarter than them. However, by the second phase of the study, in which the men were told they would meet their female counterparts, men felt uncomfortable and less masculine around smarter women and even tried to distance themselves physically. There’s a difference between what men might like on the TV or movie screen and what they want at home. So while men applaud these new-millennial women in fiction, in real life they just can’t seem to take that leap of faith.

This study reveals a damaging dynamic in male-female relationships. In the past, men’s fear of smarter women prompted women to act less smart in order to attract men. Or worse, girls would value education less because guys didn’t want them to be too smart, so they didn’t pursue education or a career, leaving them financially dependent on men. This behavior perpetuates the social stigma that women aren’t as smart as men, and it makes it harder for them to earn the respect and rights they deserve.

Evidence shows that these cultural biases are persistent in other developed countries as well as the U.S. A U.K. study of 14-year-olds for the University of Warwick’s Centre for the Study of Women and Gender found that gender stereotypes had a detrimental effect on the girls and boys being observed. Girls put themselves on restrictive diets in order to be thinner, though they were all of a healthy weight, and tended to avoid sports so as not to appear too boyish. Boys exerted their manliness through daily physical contact, from friendly smacks to actual fights. Some of these young teen boys drank alcohol to excess. But when the children were interviewed alone, each said they didn’t like the gender roles they were expected to follow.

Part of the problem in America is that the War on Political Correctness gets in the way of understanding what’s best for our children. That term is so loaded that to most people it stands for an elitist push for liberalizing social rules and labels and thus a relentless attack on the comforting traditions we were raised on.

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