For those women who grew up during the "prime" civil right era, do you think us gen y'ers take our rights?

Question

for granted?

Answer 1

It only saddens me that young women mistake being granted more rights as equality when there is none across the board.  It concerns me that some women of all generations mistake greater independence for women as equality when clearly we do not enjoy the same societal - public and private 'movement' as men and boys. And, that they have thought that true equality is having the right to emulate and ape male behaviour, as opposed to taking pleasure in the differences which makes us interesting as a gender!  Feminism is not about aspiring to be like men, as that would be accepting that we are non-men, so count for nothing.  We should celebrate our very diverse femaleness, as we see it, not how men tell us how it should be.  Feminism is about affirming being female, positivity, not hatred. Moreover, I agree with thing, it upsets me when women in general are rabid anti-feminists and take delight in using such vile misogynyst tactics to berate us! Apeing men again you see!

Answer 2

Yes, unfortunately many of you do.  Not all... but the majority, yes.

Too many younger people have lost sight of the "rewards" the feminist and civil rights movements of the 60's and 70's and 80's have given us.

Instead they choose to hear only the sound bites and propaganda about what really happened;

"Feminists are a bunch of L*****n, bra-burning, man haters".  

If anyone had any gumption to look into that "famous" little catch phrase, they would find it to be 100% UNtrue.

Not all feminists are lesbians (doubt even HALF of them are!)  and feminists NEVER actually burned their bras in any demonstration - ever.  

They protested the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City, NJ and as a symbol of removing the "restraints" of oppression towards women, they took off the bras they were wearing OVER THEIR STREET CLOTHES! and tossed them into a big barrel. But they never burned them, because they could not get a permit to have a fire within the demonstration area.  Look it up- it's true.  No feminist group ever burned their own bras in a public demonstration... but nearly everyone believes this happened and repeats it over and over again!

Ummm... men burned their DRAFT CARDS and the American flag in the anti-war demonstrations... how come no one is STILL calling them draft card burning commie b******s 40 yrs later???  

AAhhh... could it be because men are "allowed" to be unruly and step out of their box when they want to -- even to make 'mistakes in judgment' ... but women shouldn't?  Yeah.. we've come a looong way "baby".

Nearly all the feminists *I* know are straight and married, and many have sons.

None of them *I* know hate men, or anyone.  

What they hate is inequality in our society against anyone... white, black, Asian, Latino, Native American, man, woman, g*y, straight, etc.

What female anti-feminists and men in general don't "get" is that feminism works BOTH ways;  if women are free to be who they are, and not treated in a lesser manner for it, men will be allowed to be more free as well... to be who THEY are without being treated in a lesser manner for it.

Answer 3

You only truly appreciate rights when you suffer because of a lack of them. I could never value the right to freedom of speech as much as I probably should simply because I have always took it for granted that I could speak freely even if no one wishes to listen

edit: ah louise it's one thing for you as a woman living in America to value equality but the truth is many even in your country don't value it since it's a very loaded concept with no real meaning. Equal opportunity and rights is held by a greater consensus perhaps because it's equitable or fair that everyone get the same startline not because it's "equal", that makes no sense since equality is just a gauge for when things are level. So at the startline we should be level but obviously not where we finish up.

Answer 4

Not really, but there is always a danger of doing so.

In Australia (where I live) the right to free assembly was something our ancestors fought very hard for, and won many gains.

They stopped short of introducing it as an 'inalienable'right, but because there was never any challenge to it, people assumed all was well and the need to defend this right was forgotten.

Then, about 30 years ago, during a time when there was a lot of street demonstrations, a government came to power in one of our states which started throwing people in prison to prevent them having the right to assemble freely.

Let me tell you, a lot of people were really shocked! But it proved on thing to me, and to many others ~ never leave your rights in the hands of others and hope they will have the same respect for them as you do.

When younger women step away from feminism and other activism because they are afraid it will make them seem unattractive or old fashioned, taht is something worth thinking about.

Cheers :-)

Answer 5

Many do, yes.  Especially the ones who think they can get ahead by using their sexuality and that they will be taken seriously if they do.  They won't.

It isn't necessary to place the "prime" period of activism on a pedestal, but I do believe nothing should ever be taken for granted.

Answer 6

Speaking as a member of Gen Y, I do think a lot of my peers take their rights for granted. In high school, half the students were politically aware, sometimes to the point of activism; the other half couldn't have cared less.

Answer 7

I grew up during the 1960-1970's and based on what I saw, it looks like the average American is not interested in politics or civil rights unless they are seriously and personally threatened with losing them. This generation is no better or worse than any others. To get some perspective: one of the major reasons young people could make such a splash in the 1960's and early 1970's was because there were a ton of baby boomers-so if a number of them were politically active, it was noticeable.

By the mid-1970's when I went to college in the midwest, the biggest issue on my campus was whether beer kegs could be kept on the dorm floor or not. My college had just started a women's studies minor program, the GLBA group was very tiny as well as the group representing minorities. Almost all of the people of color at my college were from other countries-I lived in the International dorm so I was around the most people of color on the entire campus of 10,000.

There were less rights for women to take for granted in the 1970's, but much of the sexual discrimination was still accepted and acceptable, since the laws passed in the 1960's still weren't being enforced. Women were limited to a few "female" professions (jobs were separated in the want-ads by gender), and even though I was working at dead-end jobs, even there they didn't think women were "capable" of being managers, especially of men (I applied a few times and was told "females aren't managers"). We just accepted having to deal with professors who sexually harassed their students and managers who sexually harassed their subordinates, as the higher ups really didn't care, even when you complained (I complained and so did others).

Women are told the same thing they were 40 years ago, that we shouldn't make waves and we've got it easy and stop complaining and being a pain. I'll stop making waves when women are fairly represented in politics and economically, until then, there's usually only a few of us who actually do something about what we believe in. Accepting the status quo is what we're taught to do, we're not taught to question the way things have always been...