“You can't respect without supporting, and you can't support without respecting." - me.
Right, gender equality, where do we start? Let us start with a bit of a personal rant.
I haven’t always actually been such a staunch supporter of gender equality, and even more so when it came to more non-traditional identities. I remember clearly that I was one of those annoying kids who kept talking about “boy versus girl” and “oh boys suffer more because of something something.”. Then came COVID, which brought along the “sigma/alpha” toxic masculinity trend. And naturally, I gravitated towards these flashy, cool edits of men being downright abusive to women and these very cherry-picked portrayals of the LGBTQ community.
Sure, I changed. There was no set point where I’d say I changed for the better, really. Looking back, it’s honestly a bit cringe to think about. That "sigma" mindset is designed to prey on insecurity, especially for estranged young boys, which it absolutely did for me.
When I started actually interacting with the people I once shunned, it was revelatory. I met women who were brilliant, funny, and navigating challenges I had completely overlooked in my "hurr durr boy > girl hurr durr" phase. I met queer individuals who weren't the exaggerated, cherry-picked caricatures the internet fed me. Really, they were just regular people, trying to live authentically, study, work, and be happy. It wasn’t easy. Even though I could feel their authenticity, their ethics and morals, and their existence, the fight against years of inculcation stood tough.
I know, being an advocate doesn't mean I have it all figured out. I still have biases, still have difficulties in understanding some people’s struggles. Sometimes I still catch myself having a knee-jerk reaction or feeling a flash of defensiveness when a blind spot of mine gets pointed out. But instead of leaning into that defensiveness or doubling down, I try to hit pause. I have to actively ask myself why? Why did I do that? It shears away at my pride and ego (I admit that I have a big, big ego. Huge, in the words of Orange Weasel), but I swallow it up and do it. I think, frankly, I have become a slightly better human being!
Enough of that. Now to the unit. Frankly, I hated it. This felt like an insult to my existence and what I stand for. The way this unit tried to talk about gender equality was nothing more than virtue signalling. I am not kidding in any way. It is both shallow and incomplete. Let me quote PTU on this.
“in the literal first text of the unit: ' We're so lucky to be living in a country where everyone can do the job they want, ' that's the BARE MINIMUM. Why are you trying to use what is essentially a basic human need as proof that you are above any other nation?”
The whole unit feels extremely impersonal and vague. Sure, the stories of the first female astronaut are… well… something, I guess? But then again, who gives a damn? It does NOTHING to convince misogynists into changing, and maybe REINFORCES THEIR BELIEFS by sounding so pretentious and misconstrued as teaching material. And the way the unit subconsciously separates men and women. It’s always “oh, I am a girl working a man's job”. IT SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN A DISCUSSION IN THE FIRST PLACE. NO, IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT. AND WHAT IS UP WITH THE OVEREMPHASIS ON JOBS? Do people not realize that discrimination runs deep and throughout life, that talking about professions will almost certainly NEVER resolve anything?
No mention is made about the root causes, spread, or history, either. It’s like mentioning kids about malaria, without telling them about mosquitoes, blood transmission, and death tolls. It’s mindboggling! Sure, an oblivious reader would know that these events happen, but without justification, why care? Why fret over the thought of women being discriminated against when they don’t know how misogyny is spread, how it is categorized, and WHAT CAN WE DO? WHAT CAN WE DO??? Oh, the problem is there! Now you know of the problem. Go suck it up and bear the consequences while we tell you NOTHING about resolving it. HAHAHHAHAHAHAH says the Ministry of Education.
And what also finds my rage and anger is the literal omission of LGBTQ+ people. Like, why? Haven’t we learnt already? Decades, centuries of activism just for the MoE to go poof, into oblivion. What stupidity. This just shows how much of a virtue-signaller they are. Trying to put “gender equality” as a unit and never mentioning one of the most marginalized populations in their country, as a means to stay “politically correct” in this country of discrimination and torment. How pernicious.
These people suffer the accusations and tarnishment of others in face of their success. TIM CAIN, THE DEVELOPER OF FALLOUT (LITERALLY ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZED AND BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME) WAS DISCRIMINATED BY HIS OWN LABEL AND WAS THE SUBJECT TO HARASSMENT FROM INTERNET TROLLS WHEN HE GOT MARRIED TO HIS HUSBAND.
Here, I quote some of the horrible things that he mentions being said when he got married in an interview.
"The AIDS epidemic was rampant. You were basically told if you're a gay man, you're going to die. And that terrified teenage me, but also it kinda shaped my whole career, because I never really had a role model. [...] Because almost everyone gay, who was older than me, was dead."
"I came out. [...] But I didn't tell this to publishers, because now that I own a company in my mind the worst thing would be to come out and possibly not get deals from publishers, because I was an openly gay developer."
"I got married [...] I changed my facebook status that night. My wikipedia page [...] was defaced. My occupation was changed from developer to homosexual. There were whole forums discussing whether or not my games were still worth playing. [...] And this is a great thing to read when you're on your honeymoon."
I won't call names, but I am willing to wager that the majority of people reading this are homophobic by default, and use the word "gay" as an insult. Adios!
