Tuesday, December 8, 2009

How Men See Women

"The law sees and treats women the way men see and treat women." MacKinnon states that the state achieves it's dominance by embodying and ensuring male control over women's sexuality at every level. I believe that this is true to an extent. For centuries, men have had control and dominance over the law as well as the most influencial and controlling aspects of society. Because of this control, they have been able to subdue women to a role in which they are at a lower status than men. It hasn't been until the past couple decades that some men have become progressive and accepting of women as capable members of society. Success has come to those women who have been persistent and have been able to break the status quo and make upward movement professionally. The law is controlled by a largely proportionate male population. Yes, we there have been female members of the Supreme Court. Yes, there are female judges. Yes, there are female Congrees women. But, overwhelmingly our government is still controlled by men. This is reflected in discrimination to women within the court system and the difficulty for women to reach high status within the government. The nation has seen tremendous strides in these terms though, and they cannot be ignored. Hillary Clinton is the prime example of how far we've come and how much it will continue.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely agree that men still hold many powers over women, but MacKinnon exaggerates the extent that this is true, like you said. Some discrimination actually benefits women in courtrooms, as women are often less likely to get convicted, or possibly more likely to have a judge on their side in child custody and divorce battles. But I do think society has a long way to go towards gender equality in many occupations, for example the corporate world, where male CEOs make much more than their female counterparts.

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