WomensStuff

I have a stronger take. I don't think most people, whatever their social group, cares about the rights of other groups.

In Canada we have the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) as an object lesson. The NAC was a powerful force in politics that forced things like better handling of the Canada Pension Plan for women who left employment to rear children, larger and sharper teeth for the laws against workplace harassment, and the specific inclusion of women's rights in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

As it grew in power and influence, it started to grow in diversity as well. Queer women, women of various ethnicities, etc. were brought into the fold ... and then promptly ignored or even steam-rollered over by the white, middle-class majority of the NAC. Their stated policy at one point was that they were working for all women and only policies that impacted all women were worth fighting for. The fact that, say, black, Asian, or most especially, native women had issues that differered from the issues white middle class women faced was ignored or, sometimes, even derided as unimportant. The constant infighting this engendered made the group lose its political impact to the point that when the government pulled the plug on its funding it was really a(n unintentional) mercy killing in disguise. (Unintentional in that the intent was to kill the group; the mercy was unintentional.)

So here we had one of the most powerful voices for women in any country on the planet torn up from within because it was created by and dominated by middle class white women who absolutely did not care (for the most part) about the issues facing, say, native women. Native women were getting killed. White middle class women were getting lower salaries than me. Both are problems, but one seems just a wee tad more important than the other to me. (But what do I know? I'm not white so my opinion didn't count. Yes there is lingering bitterness. Does it show?)

You can find this story again and again all over the place. The strongest anti-immigration voices in Canada with each wave of new immigrants was ... ... the previous waves of immigrants. Ukrainians didn't want Italian immigrants. Italian immigrants didn't want the Russian Jews. Russian Jews didn't want the Ethiopians. Ethiopians didn't want the Iraqi nor the Iranians. And so on and so on and so on. Each group seems to be laser focused on itself only and genuinely doesn't care about other groups.

Men not caring about women's rights is just part and parcel of that same element of terrible humanity. Everybody cares about the in-group. Nobody (statistically speaking) cares about the out-group. Hell, even the so-called "Zoomers" who claim to be anti-bigotry of all kinds ... are intensely ageist. There's always the in-group and the out-group, even among those who most loudly proclaim their universality.

Does this mean we should give up? HELL NO! I'll take a page from The Who here and say "we've launched the revolution, 'history ain't changed', so pick up our guitars again and launch the next!" Human behaviour is a shit stain on morality. But shit stains can be brushed out with effort. The darker elements of human nature can be slowly removed from the fabric of society.