Humanism.

Humanism: is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism, empiricism) over established doctrine or faith (fideism).

-Definition: Wikipedia

I am a woman.

I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter and granddaughter.

I am a conservative.

I do not identify as a feminist.

I do not identify as a non-feminist.

I believe that every human on the planet should have the sole right to their person.

I believe that every human should have equal opportunity.

I believe that every human should have equal provisions and necessities provided.

I believe that every human should be treated equally by the law and others.

I am a humanist.

In the simplest of terms there is a lot wrong and a lot right with the world that we live in.  Many of each to do with our personal identities and our access to rights and freedoms. Most of it to do with this principle, even this demand even, of entitlement for equality.

In North America we can choose the industries we go into, choose what education we take in post secondary, choose who and when we marry, we can choose different “lifestyles”; a word foreign in many countries in the world.  We can choose how to live our lives and where to live them.

In developing countries people receive none of these luxuries.  In a developing country people are more worried about where their next meals will come from, or access to clean water, than whether they are making an acceptable wage on a daily basis for work done. In these countries people are more worried about their families or themselves dying of starvation or drought than any of our ‘western issues’.

Emma Watson gave a moving speech on a new feminism campaign that the UN is calling ‘he for she’.  within the first 5 hours of global access to this speech via internet, she was receiving threats against her person, her private sexual life, along with every other woman who is active and identifying as a ‘feminist’ that I have seen in my life time. This is unacceptable.  Not that a woman is targeted for her views, or that a feminist was threatened for taking a stance.  Not even because a ‘new campaign’ for equal rights for women was possibly started or possibly misrepresented.  But that a human being, who is trying to make a difference in a big kid’s sandbox, was judged for their opinions at all, and the result being threats against their person, their privacy and most importantly their life.

She had an immeasurable number of excellent points in her speech.  She spoke about how inequality affects both men and women.  She spoke of how it is wrong to deny women access to equal wages, and rights over their own bodies.  She discussed the depth of the impact on both men and women’s relationships and mental health.  She provided statistics on suicide for men in the United Kingdom, and addressed a number of other topics, to do with both genders.

What she didn’t do is address them from a general standpoint. She discussed all of these points from a feminist viewpoint, all of this while claiming not to be a ‘man hater’, and still imploring men for their help and participation as a tool in aiding female equality.  This is where she was wrong.

The National Center for Men founded in 1987, and located in Coram, NY, fights for and supports men’s rights for equality.  They say that, men are targeted by law for crimes more often than women, and often found guilty when innocent.  They claim that men are unjustifiably responsible for unwanted offspring more than women, and yet more often denied custody over their children when they are wanted even if the mother is not capable of caring for the offspring. The NCM states that an overwhelming number of men are homeless, many more so that women. They declare that circumcision is an assault on male sexuality.

What the NCM doesn’t do is visit the challenges that both genders face daily in their own individual lives and this is where this organization is wrong.

Men are often portrayed in tv shows advertisements on daytime and prime time television as imbeciles, angry, frustrated, and even plain clueless to world issues, their households, and families.  These portrayals are almost never accurate.

We aren’t fighting for equal rights for females, or males, or children, or adolescents, we’re fighting for equal rights for humans.

Men and women are targeted, more often by race and religious, and sexual orientation than anything.  Despite all this men want privileges that have been provided to women in the work place for years.  Flexible schedules, more vacation time, more sick days, all to help deal with their families and personal issues.  Women want all this and equal wages.  Everyone should be able to choose which bonus to take from their employer, I doubt any one person would get more than one or two if this were an option. Custody of children should be provided to every person judged equally for their skill, compassion and desire to provide.  Financial aid and other forms of support for offspring should be judged and provided based on the level of involvement in that child’s life, both of these approaches should be taken with all people.

Mental health and medical aid should be provided to all people with mental health and medical challenges and disabilities.  Education should be available to all people who want and work for it.  Apart from medical intervention to save a life, each individual, no matter their race, religion, gender or identifying gender should have full and singular right over their bodies.

This all being said it is wrong to rape and kill a human being, it is wrong to steal or cheat a human being. It is wrong to be an adulterer or an abuser of animals, children or people.  It is just as wrong to rape and kill a woman as it is to rape and kill a man.   It is wrong to discriminate against a human for his or her race, religion, sexuality, political alignment age or gender.

An example, while extreme, given to me in discussion on this topic is that; if I were to walk through a neighbour-hood with an ethnically targeting and discriminatory t shirt on, declaring my distaste for the racial majority in the region and was shot to death, would it be wrong of me to have been killed? Yes, but was it wrong and ignorant of me to have worn the offending article of clothing as well? Of course.  Don’t ask for trouble.  People can be quick to anger as easily as it is to find people who are mentally disturbed.  Another good example is of women’s clothing.  Since the dawn of time, if you are peacocking in revealing clothing it is typically to advertise your availability as an individual.  In addition to this, we have always had criminals and the mentally and emotionally disturbed, with this comes of course sexual predators.  By dressing in revealing clothing, you make yourself a target for such individuals.

This is not to justify the action of the few, but to say, take responsibility for yourself and respect yourself enough to protect your person from being targeted in such a way.  It is wrong to rape and kill for lots of reasons, it is wrong to discriminate and it is also wrong to dress inappropriately for lots of reasons.

Do yourself a favor, take responsibility for yourself, for your choices, respect yourself to make better choices, and more importantly stand up for everyone, not just the bullied, the children, the less fortunate, the women, or the men.  Stand up for humans.  Our humanitarianism is the only thing that keeps us from destroying the planet, and it is slowly failing in a world where communities are slowly degrading into technology hubs.

I’m asking you to stop fighting for the ‘men’s rights movement’, I’m asking you to stop being a ‘feminist’.  I’m asking you to stop being complacent.  I’m even asking you to stop fighting.

Instead support humanism, global equal access and rights.  So that our poor countries can eat, our prospering countries can continue to prosper and our biodiversity as a species can thrive.  So that we can live in harmony without international wars and conflicts.  Support humanitarianism so that we can live in peace and prosper globally.

Do yourself and your neighbour a favour, jump onto a new bandwagon, to help the people, to support the people, to bring equality to the people.

If we are going to sit down and say that both genders are going to be equal, there would have to be a lot of things put on the table for both genders. So lets stop this petty battle of pitting the sexes against each other.

Join me, become a Humanist.

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