Count the doubloons of humanistic social endeavor available under the framework of masculinity, and under that of femininity, and see for yourself the two are not even remotely equal.
Hmm. Having recently read a compelling case for families that maintain a home economy - based on economics and issues regarding sustainability and the environment - I'm not *quite* sure I agree, but a) my opinions are only just forming and b) I have a suspicion that I'm missing an underlying premise. I'll describe my initial response and see if that contributes anything to the conversation.
While there's certainly much less of a
variety of endeavors historically available to females, homemaking and child-rearing seem like entirely noble activities for either sex, particularly when paired with a sense of civicmindedness. Though you couldn't overstate my problems with suburban Christian culture if you tried, in the end my mom's ideal life is something I can distantly admire: she wanted to raise her kids well and in a safe environment, maintain a thriving home economy, and be an active and charitable participant in her community. From what I can tell, this is a fairly traditional ideal; most of the conservative women I've been acquainted with endorse it.
So although I absolutely agree that gender was built to saddle females with the "inferior" occupations, I don't think those occupations are
actually inferior -- in ideal circumstances, anyway. (I am rather skeptical that a career as a suburban housewife is helping humanity in any significant sense, lol.) Or, hmm, are you referring to something else?
Trans issues and sexual equality issues are mostly unrelated, but it's inappropriate and unproductive for a handful of purists to play such an exclusionary game.
That's my feeling on the matter. What can you possibly gain by excluding transwomen from feminist events and women-only spaces? Transwomen did
grow up with male privilege, and in this there is a significant difference between transwomen and ciswomen; but I'm hard pressed to see how this difference could result in any justification to prevent transpeople from participating in
anything. I'm sure some transwomen are misogynistic, but the problem there is... well... you have a misogynist individual on your hands. God knows ciswomen can be misogynistic too. Kick them out on the street and move on!
Hate to break it to you but being gay is a personal/social choice, but so is falling in love (even though you feel your heart randomly picks your partner for you).
I'd like to hear you describe what "choice" is, tush. I know you study psychology. If you have the time, describe how you've come to conceptualize it, and how you arrived at the counterintuitive conclusion that events like discovering you're gay or falling in love are the result of a choice. (Maybe it's more like "countercultural" than "counterintuitive", but you see what I'm getting at.)
Because I know the stories of a number of gay people quite intimately, and I don't think it could be rightfully said that any of them made a choice as we colloquially understand the word. I do know for a fact that
some gays have made a choice, as we understand it -- or a choice to act on potentialities, more accurately -- but I don't believe that's common. I
particularly don't believe that's common with transpeople. But perhaps you have a more creative interpretation of what choice constitutes.
