> Feminism is: the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men
We had more than equal rights for a long time now. Affirmative action helped women for how long?
> As far as i'm aware, we still live in an unequal society. Men make more money than women.
You are confusing equal outcomes with equal opportunities. Let me give you a good example: in engineering there are plenty of bursaries available for women. Support for men in engineering pales into comparison with the support of women in engineering. Yet, a lot more men study engineering than women (and the gender gap is widening).
Can you say that there was not equal opportunity?
> Women are not anywhere close to being proportionally represented in government.
Again – they have equal voting rights. If they feel they have been mistreated they can vote for another party. There are several countries in the world (such as Germany) that have female presidents.
> Good thoughts lalaca. I'm part of the over 40 crowd here on HN ;).
I'm actually in my mid 20ies, but I noticed that I sound a lot like an older person on moral issues (because I tend to be a tad bit more conservative).
> I do not agree with the view that "you have to get laid in high school"
That is unfortunately the view among young people. A virgin is looked upon as someone with a type of disease.
> inherit ability to know right from wrong just because they may have had more sexual partners than someone of a prior generation?
The problem is that stable relationships (that eventually leads to marriage &&/|| children) aren't being formed any more. People like instant gratification (like 2 minute oats, etc...) anything that takes a tad bit commitment is ignored.
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I am also amazed at some morals of younger people (including most of my friends) - but this is a whole other topic.
> Pop culture certainly has some influence on the real world, but i'm afraid you are either very shallow, or very naive if you're buying your world view from a television show (or in opposition to it).
Pop-culture is basically mainstream culture. I do not even live in the USA - yet you exported your "culture" so effectively. Most places around the world are becoming "little americas" - based on your culture. If you think about it - pop culture has more influence than anything else. Even if a person goes to a church (or other religious institution) he will only spend about an hour a week there. TV? Most people spends 7+ hours a week in front of a TV.
I view the country in which I live as 10 years behind the USA as far as social issues goes. This is mainly because it was a very closed society.
> I know a number of wonderful American girls as well. Three-quarters of them, for what it's worth, weren't born here or are second-generation immigrants.
You have a point here. What I found (in general) is that if a generation is poor they will generally be hard-working. That generation and their children will generally have good qualities. But if a few generations are fairly well off they will start getting bad qualities – people start to think that they are entitled to everything and do not have to work for it.
In a few years you get the situation that kids drive to school in their cars, watch Paris Hilton programs and start to have sex at 14.
As an example: my father was fairly poor. I doubt that today there are many of couples who will stick together through thick and (mostly) thin like they did.
As for feminism – it is a good idea, but the pendulum swung too far to the one side.
I'm going to be honest here since this is a shill account. Calling out sexism at any opportunity is getting old and it destroys any discourse.
These labels are a way to destroy a conversation – which may have very valid points. Another example – you cried racism in a previous post that was drawn a bit far. Racism has become an extremely loaded word and a blunt tool to basically hit anyone even though he may say something a 100% correct.
> Please be careful though to not brand people as immoral simply because their past is different than yours.
> From my perspective, I do not find a strong correlation between "sexual history" and "morality".
I doubt that your definition of “niceness” is right. Morals (to me at least) is the basic rules that you live your life by – so it is inherently a personal concept.
So whatever morals you live by – he may live by a different set of morals and feel that excessive intercourse may be immoral. There is no reason for you to blankly dismiss his moral values (just because your personal morals are not the same as his). Whether you agree with his morals or not – the fact remains that it is real to him and he chose to live his life by them.
> Bringing up the topic of sexual history with a woman is generally a huge turnoff.
In every relationship you must discuss several things that may or may not be a turn-off (e.g. religion, politics, views on certain things such as abortion – basically everything that we do not discuss on HN). This may not be always pleasant – but it still is important.
> When you do so, you are clearly judging her and telling her she must fit some predetermined notion of what you, a man, thinks a woman's place is in the world.
No. It is important to discuss all of those things in a serious relationship. If you have a notion of a girl that differs from reality it is important that you know that. If the relationship ends because your notion of her is different than reality then it is ultimately a good thing.
If you have ever been in a relationship and your partner did or said something and you thought “WTF??” you will know this to be important.
> My only training on this matter is from living my own life and having to grow out of some of these issues myself. To put is bluntly, this is the common story of the geek who didn't get laid in high school and has evolved a blanket of morality around the reasons why.
Maybe. My take on this is as follows (I am not a US citizen): The USA became sexually liberal extremely quickly – and even now there is huge encouragement from media to engage in casual sexual intercourse (+). IMHO I don't think that this is the right approach – and sexual intercourse should preferably go hand in hand with stable monogamous relationships.
I don't know what this USA view is that you 'have to get laid' in high school and that it is a shame to be a virgin. It is stupid (Paris Hilton stupid).
Even if the past was too conservative, I think the pendulum swung to much to the liberal side – and the good position is somewhere in the middle.
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(+) If I sound like your father/grandfather forgive me – it was not the intent.
I certainly would not want my wife/serious gf to have been "around" a lot (i.e. knowing the football team). Maybe casual sexual encounters is American culture, but respectfully I think it is a bad thing.
We had more than equal rights for a long time now. Affirmative action helped women for how long?
> As far as i'm aware, we still live in an unequal society. Men make more money than women.
You are confusing equal outcomes with equal opportunities. Let me give you a good example: in engineering there are plenty of bursaries available for women. Support for men in engineering pales into comparison with the support of women in engineering. Yet, a lot more men study engineering than women (and the gender gap is widening).
Can you say that there was not equal opportunity?
> Women are not anywhere close to being proportionally represented in government.
Again – they have equal voting rights. If they feel they have been mistreated they can vote for another party. There are several countries in the world (such as Germany) that have female presidents.