From Internet sandwich jokes to Seth MacFarlane’s highly questionable “boob song” at the 2013 Oscars, Americans have not been the kindest to females — both in the past and the present. Sexist put-downs, wage discrepancies and a general lack of equal opportunity for women have stained the face of U.S. history.
However, this is only one half of the story. Males, on the other hand, are discriminated against in other areas, such as divorce, rape and sexual harassment. At the urging of mass culture, discrimination and bias — against both males and females — have become our natural state of being.
Neither gender’s rights are “more important” than those of the other; however, in response to the historical injustices against females, women’s rights have come to the foreground, leaving consideration for males in the dust. In reality, men also face societal misconceptions — for instance, that men must be tough, or that men are never sexually assaulted. The U.S. needs to move toward gender equality in payment, justice and the other areas of society.
Variances in the treatment of women and men highlight the inappropriate influence of preconception in the justice system. S. Fernando Rodriguez, Theodore Curry and Gang Lee at the University of Texas in El Paso note that women who commit atypical crimes for females (i.e., violence) face similar charges to men; however, female offenders for more stereotypically female crimes, (i.e., shoplifting and drug use) tend to benefit more from gender-based preferential treatment.
Men tend to face harsher and longer punishments for certain types of crimes — especially regarding sexual harassment and murder. The fact that there are distinctly “male” and “female” crimes — stereotypes based on arbitrary characteristics — brings the fairness of the law into question.
This bias extends past the judicial system. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission estimates that men file only about 16.4 percent of sexual harassment charges, leading to the misconception that men do not face sexual harassment.
Society does not need to put one gender down to raise up another. We instead need to move toward equal consideration and rights, not reverse discrimination. The difference between an X and a Y chromosome is not great enough to warrant differences in paycheck size. By moving toward the equalization of income, sentencing and civil rights, we can begin to approach the social acceptance of both genders.
Though males and females have significant differences, we are all human beings; it’s about time we treated others with equal consideration. After all, shifting our perceptions to view others not as males or females, but simply as people, is the first step toward fairness.
