The Fallacy of the Oppression of Women

This may feel like I'm repeating myself.....but after spending several hours doing additional reading on genocide in Darfur, Ruanda, Sudan.....and then spending a bit of time browsing feminist websites and hearing all about the woeful plight of western women at the hands of the terrible 'patriarchy'.....I just need to vent.

It never ceases to amaze me the way feminists continue with their assertions of the oppression of women in western society. Western women are not oppressed; they are the exact opposite of oppressed. I'm sure some will take issue with this, but I submit that women are not specifically oppressed anywhere.

Now, no need to start throwing out horror stories and statistics from Islamic and third world countries, I do not suggest that there are not places in the world where women live difficult lives and are subjected to horrors that us, sheltered and pampered western women, could never dream of.....My point is that anywhere in this world where women are subjected to significant evils and cruelties, men are subjected to horrors that are AT LEAST of equal magnitude.

I know I've expressed this before, but every time we hear of the atrocities women have suffered in the midst of civil wars and conflicts; being raped, going hungry, having their children ripped from their arms, their homes and villages burned.......there's a reason these stories are always told by women and it's because they're generally the only ones left alive. Typically the only survivors to bear witness to the atrocities are women because all the men have been tortured and killed and lie rotting in a mass grave somewhere.

Any place on Earth where life is cruel, it is generally at least as cruel to men as it is to women. Men are always the ones to fight and the ones to die. I applaud anyone's efforts on the behalf of oppressed people, but I'm disgusted that the only emphasis I generally hear placed upon this suffering is on behalf of women.

The oppression of women, as something that is separate and stands out from the general human condition of that specific place or time, is a myth.....but here's what really gets me......There's veritable genocide taking place in the far away reaches of our world. Villages are being burned, all the men and boys rounded up and murdered, women raped and children dying from malnutrition.....but I'm supposed to care because a woman got called 'honey' or because road signs say 'Men At Work'?

It's an interesting observation.....generally, once the feminist arguments of oppression in western society have been disproven, feminists will turn to their base argument about the oppression of women in OTHER parts of the world. Obviously I've voiced my feelings about the oppression that allegedly only affects women, but I still have to ask.......what is your typical feminist doing for these women who really are suffering? Most feminists I know are busy worrying about glass ceilings and abortion rights and complaining about how 50 some odd years ago women were expected to (gasp) be good wives and mothers, taking care of their homes and children while their husbands went off to work.

Perhaps feminists should consider taking their collective abilities and efforts and focusing them on places where people actually ARE suffering, and, just maybe, upon doing so, they should consider placing equal emphasis upon the suffering of ALL people. I know....one can dream.