I would argue that we all have prejudices in the sense of preconceived ideas about the people we meet and interact with in our daily life. It's not necessarily a bad thing. If we didn't have social biases to guide us, we might inadvertently address small children in the same way as an international symposium on the subject of quantum non-locality using tripartite entanglement with non-orthogonal states....or something. Or vice versa. And no one would be any wiser. Without some prejudice, you might expect mother-in-law to laugh at the same joke that nearly made you shit the first time you heard it, instead of making her wonder whether her daughter's married a fascistoid schizophrenic from another planet.
MOTHER-IN-LAW: Oh my God! My daughter's married a fascistoid schizophrenic from another planet.
PROFESSOR RON: Holy fuck! I married the daughter of a crabby old feminist.
STEPHEN SONDHEIM: That sounds like the subject of my next musical.
WOODY ALLEN: No, it's the subject of my next film.
ED WOOD: I already made that film back in 1964. It's not the one I'm remembered for....
Do we have these sort of preconceived ideas because we experience that people are different, or are people different because we have preconceived ideas about them? Is mother-in-law only (allegedly) devoid of anything resembling humour because society expects it of her, or do we give her the benefit of the doubt because experience tells us that wit, sophistication and irony pretty much go over her head?
We use our prejudices wisely and unwisely every day as part of a set of social skills that - when succesful - paves the way for positive, productive relations, or at least keeps people from killing each other. Yes, we can overdo it. There's no need to talk to people with foreign accents as if they're morons, unless you want them to think you're a moron. There's no need to grovel to people in lab coats or uniforms, just as there's no need to condescend to the hired help. Unless you want them to think you're a moron. Maybe you are a moron, in which case you're just being yourself, which is and damn well should be your right in a democracy worth its salt. After all, the true test of liberty and democracy is not how well we all stroke each other and say 'pretty please with sugar on,' but how well we accommodate dissent, conflict and provocation. Democracy isn't there to make people nicer, but to enable assholes to live together. But the point is, prejudice is first and foremost a personal and social issue that rational thinking, free citizens should be able to figure out for themselves.
At what point does it become a political issue? When it becomes systematic and systemic unfair treatment, costing you your legally guaranteed rights of citizenship and fair opportunities. Feminists will tell you that's the case with gender, but the evidence doesn't support it. Sure, studies show that gender is a big cultural issue. We don't treat boys and girls the same. Whether it originates on a conscious or subconscious level, it's good to be aware of it if it can help one to be more socially adept. Do we make girls and boys different by treating them differently, or do we treat them differently because experience tells us they're different? Perhaps there's truth in both scenarios, in which case, the question becomes, how much? I'm all for challenging gender roles, freeing oneself from peer pressure, as well as one's own inhibitions, and helping others to do the same.
If you study prejudice in terms of gender, you will find prejudice based on gender. If you study it in terms of appearance, age, dialect, handicap or any other prominent human trait, you will find it based on these things too. Does it lead to discrimination? In some cases, surely, but that doesn't qualify it as a systemic problem that needs addressing politically. We have laws against discrimination, laws guaranteeing equal rights and opportunities. The rest is up to us as individuals and citizens of society.
Besides, we can't politicise everything, can we? I for one don't know what demographic I'm supposed to belong to. As a white male I'm judged by some to be an oppressor on at least two fronts. That makes me one of the bad people. As an ageing, ugly fucker with a distinctly Jewish looking nose, I'm probably subject to all sorts of prejudice and maybe even some discrimination in favour of the young and beautiful. Poor little me. I'm a victim. Who's going to pass a law solving all my problems? Can I even prove that they're not just in my own imagination?
BABS: Stop whining already! You call that a nose? This is a nose!
It becomes a campaign for political correctness, based on the fact that the sexes have different tastes, interests, humour etc. That's the difference between the different waves of feminism. The present one actually wants to dismantle equal rights in its quest for an artificial homogeneity, making a personal and social issue political at the cost of liberty and reason.
That's why I'm voting with my feet, so to speak, using ridicule and political incorrectness as an antidote to something I find absurd.
So fuck feminism! Not because I don't want equal rights and equal opportunities, but precisely because I do.
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