I am really tired of hearing this crock of garbage that keeps getting tossed around because it sounds good, because it's a lie that a simple google search could fix.
Yeah, like others are saying, you totally missed the point.
The entire situation this thread is portraying as a problem simply doesn't need to exist.
Analogy time5 men and 5 women attend a party. At this party, there is one pie. The pie is cut into 8 slices. 5 men get a slice of pie, and only 3 women get a slice of pie.
"Oh, noes!" cries one of the women without pie.
"This is unfair! For far more men received pie than did women! More women now suffer for lack of pie than men! The distribution of pie for both haves and have-nots is wholly unequal and unfair!""That's right," one of the men happily munching on delicious pie states.
"In fact the ratios are skewed 30% vs 50%. That's not a 20% difference, that's a two thirds difference. 66% more men than women received pie. That's completely unfair and we should definitely do something about it.""Shut up you misogynist pig!" she retorts.
"You're perpetuating the problem and engaging in extreme gender stereotyping!""Wait, what?" he replies, confused.
"I'm agreeing with you.""You are a man and you're doing math!" she screeches.
"The implication is that men are better at math you womyn-hating piece of trash!""Umm, well sorry," he apologizes.
"I was just trying to help. I can't help it if I'm a man. LordBucket wrote this example, not me.""Exactly! You have example privilege," she continues.
"You have a fundamental privilege so utterly built into the system that you don't even perceive it.""Ok, ok..." somebody interjects.
"What are we going to do about this?"At this point, quotas are proposed. There are 8 slices of pie. So, give 4 to men, and 4 to women. They'll just take a slice of pie from one of the men and give it to one of the women. Problem solved, right?
"But wait," one of the men with pie objects.
"How do we determine which man to take pie away from? It's cherry, and cherry is my favorite. I don't really want to give it up.""Why are we having this conversation?" one of the women without pie asks.
"I don't even like pie.""Well, I do!" the other women without pie replies.
"And cherry is also my favorite. Don't go spoiling it for me just because you don't care!""It's the principal!" one of the women with a slightly larger than average slice of pie shouts.
"You are so oppressed you don't even realize it! Take the pie from man, sister! It is your right!""Yeah!" people of both genders shout.
"Let's make this right!"And so, they take away a slice of pie from one of the men and ask the two women who didn't get pie to get in line. Unfortunately the women who really wanted it because cherry is her favorite, is fat, and therefore much slower than the other woman. So the fastest, most capable, of the women to get in line received the pie rather than the one who most wanted it.
"But wait," the man who had pie taken from him objects.
"You gave my slice of pie to the woman who was faster to get in line instead of the woman who really wanted it. But I was the first in line out of everybody. I was waiting for pie while all the rest of you were still sitting chatting. How is it fair that I, of all people, should go without pie? I worked for it more than you did.""But, wait," somebody points out.
"There are two children at this party. Surely they we should make sure that they receive pie before anybody else, regardless of gender?""What?!!?!?" someone else responds,
"are you openly encouraging discrimination??!!? I am so triggered right now!!!!""This is all completely unfair!" the fat women too slow to receive the slice whines.
"I wanted that pie so much! I NEED that pie! What good does it do to try to enforce fairness if the people who really need it don't even benefit? You already took pie from one of the men. Take pie from another man and give it to me!""What if we cut the slices smaller so that everybody gets one?""I already said I don't want pie." the women from before replies.
"Somebody can have mine.""No!" everyone shouts in a panic.
"That just makes enforcing equality harder! You take that pie whether you want it or not!""I'm still hungry," the fat woman cries to herself.
Do any of these arguments sound familiar?
Is the solution here to create "quotas?" At the next party shall they come up with some sort of complicated system of distribution and turn away people who want pie but don't meet those metrics?
Even if you do that, does it solve this alleged problem of "inequality?" No, not really. So 4 men get pie and 4 women get pie. Ok, but what if of those 8 people, 5 are white 2 are asian and 1 is black...and one of the two people who didn't get pie are black? So you now have equal distribution of pie by gender, but a disproportionate number of whites and asians are receiving pie.
So how do you fix that? Do you come up with new quotas? Do you punish the people handing out pie if they don't turn away people in line for pie who don't happen to match demographic distributions? What if they can't? What if the actual ratios of people don't allow even distribution? Let's say there are only 3 women at the party and 7 men? Do you give out only 6 slices, 3 to men 3 to women and then throw out the other two to enforce equal distribution?
For that matter, how do you even decide which metrics to use? Why does anyone care if men or women receive equal amounts of pie? What's so special about gender? What if at the next party somebody points out that only 2 people with blonde hair received pie, while 4 brunettes received pie. Is that unfair? Is that a horrible injustice in need of correcting?
...no. The
whole thing is ridiculous. You don't solve a ridiculous situation by adding more ridiculousness to it.
The solution is completely obvious:
make more pie, and stop worrying about all this nonsense. Make enough pie for everybody, and if somebody gets two slices because they wanted two and somebody else gets none because they didn't want any, that's fine and nobody cares.
Inequality is irrelevant. Even distribution by arbitrary metrics like race or gender or hair color is irrelevant. Satisfying everyone's wants is a far more desirable result, and you don't accomplish that by changing how you distribute insufficient pie.
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Topic: Gender quotas (Read 37702 times)