In college I discovered I could take film classes as English literature electives, this winding road of work avoidance placed me in "Feminist Film Theory" where I found to my surprise I was the only conservative male (there may have been a conservative female, but if there was she really hung me out to dry). Three man hating months later I got a B, which would have been an A but I tanked one paper. The professor called me in to her office and told me it was a fabulous paper but written extremely off topic, I told her the topic was boring and I was Superman's chest to the boredom bullets of the world (ok, except the Superman part).
I just finished watching a two TED videos, one on passion from the eyes of a feminist author, the other on purpose from the eyes of uber christian author Rick Warren. It makes me sad that so often the conservative movement and progressive feminist movement fight and diminish their own good in a blood bath of differentiation.
Feminist usually side with abortion, which at its root, is the powerful killing the silent. Conservatives often side against environmentalism, which at its root, is the individual taking responsibility for their personal power and making the world better for future generations. Now are feminists right that we should not allow male governments to decide what women can do with their bodies? Sure, but what about when you are harming a beautiful baby girl in the process of your personal freedom. Should conservatives hold firm that people are in fact more important that plants and animals? Sure, but it is difficult to ruin an environment without hurting its inhabitants.
If we stop thinking with bullet points and start assessing. If we stop taking whole ideologies because they come as a package deal and start asking "what about this individual situation?" We should help every person who has no voice, whether they have not formed vocal chords yet or they are in a brothel in Africa. We should be good stewards of our money, personal talents, and the air flowing to and from our lungs.
The question was once asked, what could we expect from Thomas Jefferson when it came to slavery? Almost everyone owned other humans then, Jefferson disagreed with it, was that not enough? The retort to this was "Sure he was acting like the average Virginian of his time, but do we build statues of the average? Do we picture the mundane man on our money?"
Don't be an average feminist. Don't be a mundane conservative. I hope I see a statue of you someday.
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