Why feminism 'could be bad for your health'

[Marcus Marulus]

Why feminism 'could be bad for your health'


by CHARLOTTE GILL

25th March 2007

For years, feminists have fought for equality, believing it is the key to a better society.

Now researchers have found that parity between the sexes may be bad for your health.

A study in Sweden, arguably one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, discovered that men and women who are equal are more likely to suffer illness or disability.

Those who earn the same are also more likely to become unwell or suffer a disability.

People who have management jobs, male or female, were also found to die younger than those with a less pressured lifestyle.

Scientists looked at both public and private sector workers. They used nine indicators of equality, including the proportion of men and women in management jobs and average income.

These were related to local figures for life expectancy, disability and absence from work through ill health. The study compared data from all of Sweden's 290 municipalities.

The scientists, from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, said a possible explanation for the link between equality and illness is that men's health may be adversely affected by a loss of what had been seen as traditional male privileges.

They suggested that women's health could be damaged by greater opportunities for risky behaviour as a result of increased income combined with the stress of longer working hours.

But the study, published in the journal Social Science and Medicine, also put forward the theory that equality has not yet been fully achieved in society and that these effects are part of a transitional process on the road to fairness.

The report said: "The results suggest an unfortunate trade-off between gender equality as we know it and public health.

"Sweden may have reached a critical point where further one- sided expansion by women into traditionally male roles, spheres and activities will not lead to positive health effects unless men also significantly alter their behaviour.

"Negative effects of this unfinished equality might be found both for women, who have become more burdened, and men, who as a group have lost many of their old privileges."

Anastasia de Waal, head of family policy at the British think-tank Civitas, urged caution in interpreting the findings.

"The danger is that the data will be interpreted as a warning against shaking up divisions of labour," she said.

"In fact, what Sweden needs is complete gender equality with, for example, men entering the private sphere to the extent that women have entered the public."

Feminism began in earnest in the early 1900s, with the Suffragettes, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, successfully fighting for women's right to vote.
Society's attitudes really started to change following the Second World War, with organisations springing up to campaign for equal rights for women.

In the Sixties and Seventies legislation began to change women's lives, including the 1969 Equal Pay Act and the 1971 Divorce Law, which allowed women to separate on grounds of "intolerable behaviour".

In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act was passed and the Equal Opportunities Commission was created.
Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch, published in 1970, focused on gender inequality, and became a global bestseller.

[source]

[Tabitha]

Bad for health and more importantly, bad for your wardrobe.

[kimm]

I really can't abide Feminist garbage.

Equal rights are one thing, but blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity, while destroying the traditional family and it's values is another. Bad for everyones health in the end.

[Milesian]

Originally Posted by kimm

I really can't abide Feminist garbage.

Equal rights are one thing, but blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity, while destroying the traditional family and it's values is another. Bad for everyones health in the end.

Yes, this is an important distinction.
Feminism does not equal Equal Rights by any stretch of the imagination.
It is simply the female equivalent of male chauvinism.

Personally, I'm not even that big on equality for the simple reason that the genders are not equal. They are not created equal. They are not designed to be equal. They are designed rather to be mutually complimentary, which is something quite different.

I do believe in fairness. That is to say that if a woman does exactly the same job as a man then she should expect to be paid the same salary for it.
And if this were all that Feminism stood for then I would have no problem with it. But as we well know, this is hardly Feminism's noble goal.
It is rather an agitator for gender warfare, poisoning the relationship between men and women with a view to ultimately destroying the family unit.
It is a pernicious ideology which I believe is already the cause of much unhappiness for both men and women.

[kimm]

Originally Posted by Milesian

Yes, this is an important distinction.
Feminism does not equal Equal Rights by any stretch of the imagination.
It is simply the female equivalent of male chauvinism.

Personally, I'm not even that big on equality for the simple reason that the genders are not equal. They are not created equal. They are not designed to be equal. They are designed rather to be mutually complimentary, which is something quite different.

Exactly. Both have an the right to dignity, happiness fulfillment, but I don't for one minute believe this can be acheived through some adherence to an irrelevant concept of 'equality' or role-swapping. As you said both genders were made to compliment each other, so no wonder there's so much friction between men and women.

[Susi]

You look so dashing, kimm. *compliments*.

No, I know it's not that kind of compliment. I would agree with you two. Men and women are built physically for different roles (that's probably the most obvious difference) and they have a different mentality on things.. It would be difficult to be "equal" in agreements.. I think most can agree on this point.

[Kernunnos]

How brazen are such feminist assault pseudo-intellectuals, they even dare to deny the truth that unfolds before their eyes.

Repenting from wrong convictions is a sign of intelligence and feminists are unrepentant before truth itself.

[Strengthandhonour]

This is perfectly true.
I have read many articles regarding this issue.
One of the biggest examples they provided was that men are not as kind to women anymore. Before, men would remove coats,gloves even boots sometimes. They would pay a lot for the dates,etc this is becoming more and more rare each day. The sociologists pointed out that feminism affected the way men look at women. Men got this perspective that if women want to be the same as men then they should be treated the same way..therefore, no special benefits.

[Menydh]

The scientists, from the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, said a possible explanation for the link between equality and illness is that men's health may be adversely affected by a loss of what had been seen as traditional male privileges.

This is a big understatement.

It goes far beyond traditional 'privileges' (actually, the word should be 'role'.. it is arguable that man is/was the privileged gender... or that any of the two genders are/were privileged over the other). And it is not only men, but also women.

The use of the word traditional here makes it look as if it was something dating back to a few hundred years, or even perhaps to a few millenia. The fact is that these are roles that have been with us (men and women) through all the chain of our evolution. Those roles are hard coded in our genotypes.

The implication of reversing and perverting those roles which are so much a part of ourselves have to be, forcibly, of unforseen consequences.

[Marcus Marulus]

In fact, it's the women who lost many privileges through feminism.