I was lecturing on
Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy when this thought came to my mind which is not
about feminism. Beauvoir’s philosophy is about feminism. Feminism is a
philosophic idea that would go against the mentality men-as-dominant in
everything, from simple concepts to great application in life. There are two
extremes of feminism – liberal and radical. The liberal feminists are already
on their half-way battle (the right to suffrage and equality in salary), while
the radicals are still on the genesis of their cause, like same-sex marriage
and women ordination to priesthood. But there is another kind of discrimination
that I describe as very terminal. It is all about against married-status and
age-status.
If feminism has
arisen due to patriarchal mentality where men are considered as first-class
citizens and the former as second-class, this phenomenal discrimination is done
in the name of production. Production is the name considered as the key to
success to business people. Production is the aim for these people because the
logic is this, that the more the production, the more the profit. All of them
have one goal in life – it is more money.
In this kind of
situation at this particular period of history, the once-upon-a-time important
term ‘human’ is not anymore thought of this time. Still the term finds its
place in the language of love, but all is superficial. Love for human has no
more room today. Look at the classified ads or places in any establishments
where you find the tag FOR HIRE, there and then you will find discrimination.
It is a discrimination of a kind in terms of age-status and civil-status ‘must
be single.’
What do the single
have in life that they are the choices of companies today? One word would
describe them, and that is they are free. Singles do not have responsibility.
They own the time. And ones their employers would demand for extra time, they
are always available. On the other hand, married people have responsibility
towards their children and their spouses. Thus they are not all the time
available. What about the young compared to the people of certain age or shall
we say ‘not fresh graduates?’ The young people are vibrant, energetic and easy
to trained, while the graduates after 10 years are treated as none of the
above.
In this form of discrimination, the feminists’
cause is not yet resolved. If women are married and have reached a certain age
of disqualification, discrimination goes on and on. The mentality of men as
greater than women has expanded in scope and expounded in meaning. What would
be the best resolution to the imbalance of humanity? I guess critical thinkers
are finding ways to construct a new paradigm to go against the tide of
divisiveness.
