by stephiebaby » November 5th, 2009, 8:02 pm
"Should we have a female president? "
You should have a competent president and be beyond such concerns as gender or race.
"Its that she reprisents putting away both racial and sexist blocks that have held on for so long."
No she doesn't. For starters the are many female leaders on the world stage, we do not need to wait for America. And the blocks you refer to will not be removed by a women being elected, they will only be removed by the population not caring when a women is elected. While people make a big deal about women or black people filling certain positions they are showing their subconscious surprise that someone so handicapped could achieve such lofty goals. Equality is when a person wins, and no one cares about their gender or skin colour as those things are not handicaps to overcome.
"Ceot,
I already have an idea for a Christmas present for you next year. It's called a dictionary. I'm not sure if you've heard of one before.
The word is spelled 'definitely'. "
That's it? That is all you have to say on the topic, that you are obsessed with superficial appearences and have no depth to share? This is probably not something you should advertise? As for the spelling, did you understand the meaning? That is all that counts. And don't forget that this is an informal setting, grading peoples spelling is a much greater error than incorrct spelling.
"Lastly, don't ever refer to my religious beliefs (and those of about 2 billion other people) as 'shit' again. Learn some class."
Take you own advice, being a spelling nazi on informal internet forums is completely classless. As for religions being shit, you got the numbers wrong. It's closer to 6 billion, your religion deserves no special treatment.
"(Of course, no one should ever say "definatly" because it just makes me want to hurl dictionaries at people.) "
Well since we are all being incredibly annoying over inconsequential mistakes, don't you mean WRITE? Nobody has said anything, all these messages are written. If this was a verbal forum you would have missed the opportunity to show your spelling nazism. As it is you read and understood, so one has to wonder why it matters to you?
"excuse me for the bad writting."
Don't worry about it, your posts were perfectly clear.
"I read a statistic somewhere that said that an estimated 50% of Americans would vote against an Atheist just based on that fact alone."
I'd be surprised if the number was so low, based on the image America presents to the rest of the world.
"I don't want the United States to be faced with a choice between two female, presidential candidates, because at that point it will cease to be a choice to step toward equality"
Yes, while you concentrate on gender true equality is a long way off. You should not care if there is one, two or no women candidates. But how does one woman candidate equal equality, but two doesn't? One could be tokenism, two indicates a real presence. Unless both parties tried to win the election with tokenism?
"Taking a step forward such as getting a female in office is a pretty big one"
In American culture perhaps, but not on the world stage. When a woman is elected president Americans will jump up and down saying "Look how progressive we are", and the rest of the world will say "Big deal, get back to us when a woman leader doesn't shock you". I'm sure many people here will carry on the same for our first female prime minister, and I'd give them a similar message, it's no big deal. A woman lying around like superman would be unexpected and a big deal, but a female political leader is expected and only a big deal for those who see women as somehow inherently inferior.
"I think that this country focuses way too much on trivial infomation such as race and gender and religion, and not on more valid points like intelligence and good policy"
That is certainly the image presented to the rest of the world. It's also human nature to focus on superficial sameness, it's something most people have to make a conscious effort to overcome.
"It sets an example for the countries that look to us, and it sets an example for young girls who aspire to be president some day. I know my little sister used to want to be president. She's lost interest"
I hope you're not thinking of the countries who have already had female leaders? As for your sister, why did she lose interest? Was it because she is incapable of reaching for goals without a gender specific rolemodel, or was it just something kids say and grow out of? Your sister may have lost interest even if you had a majority of female politicians and a female president. We need to raise our kids to look for role models based on ability, not on how closely they resemble ourselves. Your sister should be able to look to people as role models, not just women.
"And in a class I took last year, we discussed the trend of young girls who want to be president who also lose interest. Maybe it's because they grow up and see all the men in power. There is no female example in this country for young girls, and so we lose hope. "
America is not the world, perhaps a broader education is required? If a girl requires another female to do things first, there are plenty of places to look for female leaders.
Did your class look at how many boys want to be president but lost interest? Perhaps many children think it's a good idea because of tv exposure or parental influence, but then their attention moves on because they are children?