• CON

    This has nothing to do with unreported cases or a 20 to...

    Modern Feminism is Not Needed in America

    Wage gap: They updated the Paycale link it seems. It used to be 7% unexplained rather than 2.4%. Where are you getting the margin of error of 4%? Glassdoor listed the paygap at 5.4% - https://www.glassdoor.com... Washington post lists the pay gap at 8% - https://www.washingtonpost.com... These consider job title, hours’ work, background, experience, and many other factors to compare apples to apples. The 79% number you mention does NOT take those considerations into account, and is therefore dishonest. However, if you believe there is any wage gap, then you should admit a need for feminism in America. Equal opportunity As previously stated I’m not going to defend the 79% claim because it’s dishonest to do so. On the matter of equality I will bring up management positions though. Only 25 companies in the fortune 500 have women CEOs. That’s roughly 5% where it should be ten times that number. Obviously, they do not have the same opportunities, there is a need for feminism in America. http://fortune.com... Rape: In the other argument, I said 1 in 5, but if we are going to be fair the number is 18.3% of women versus 1.4% of men. https://www.cdc.gov... This data is from the CDC, and it is based on “with their lifetime”. The Bureau of Justice stat you are using is “annually”. This has nothing to do with unreported cases or a 20 to 30% increase, you are comparing yearly stats to lifetime stats in an attempt to skew the data in your favor but even if we use your annual rape stat we can still see that women are raped three times more than men. Thanks for supporting my argument that there is a need for feminism in America. Again, it looks like I need to state I did NOT say there was a rape “culture”. At no point, have I said that rape is trivialized. Please stop attempting to strawman my argument into something I did not say. Female representation: Although I feel like sexualization is an issue, I don’t feel like it’s nearly as strong of an issue as the disparity of body types. Women tend to come in only one shape and size while men enjoy a wide range. I won’t go into that though as I have plenty of other well supported points, and it’s difficult to find research data on the mono-body type issue women face. https://seejane.org... On the point of less female writers. I agree and I’m glad you are supporting my argument that there is a need for feminism in America. https://www.theguardian.com... https://www.aboutfreelancewriting.com... Women do tend outnumber men on mobile, but then again they are more female friendly. But women also outnumber mean in RPGs. Men nearly double women in MMO and FPS though. https://www.engadget.com... So even if I take it that the problem is women don’t like those video games, the same problem exists in games they do like. So, although in the MMO and FPS they don’t spend an equal share of the market they still constitute a major percentage of the player base. The problem is not that women aren’t interested so much as they are not welcome, and harassed whenever they do it. https://www.superdataresearch.com... In conclusion, there is sexism demonstrated in all 4 of these topics. Women do not get equal pay, they do not have equal opportunity, they are raped more, and they are underrepresented in movies and games even by his own words, he just justifies it by saying there are more males than females playing games. Well duh, that’s because there are five times more male main characters than female. Do you want to play a game were what you want to play isn’t even an option? http://www.radford.edu... Women are not treated equally, represented equally, paid equally, or given equal opportunities therefore feminism is necessary in America. Further points Feminism is both a concept and a movement. As with any movement it will have extremist in that movement. Defining the movement by those extremist is called the composition fallacy, and it does not define the movement. Feminism has been under MAJOR attack. Although 82% of Americans want equality between the sexes which is feminism, because of these attacks only 20% are willing to declare themselves as feminists. They label them things like third wave feminist and belittle the equality they want because it’s not as big a deal as the strides for equality they have already achieved. But the core of it is this, 82% of Americans are feminists because they want equality between the sexes. Stop bullying them, they will be more willing to play with you, and the number will grow.

  • PRO

    This means that there is no pay gap of any sort which...

    Modern Feminism is Not Needed in America

    I would like to begin the rebuttal stage by stating that my opponent has broken a rule of "All sources made after arguments." As I have already broke a rule of using my opponents name, I will nullify it. For clarification, at the end of all the arguments, not each individual point. Further my opponent has added rebuttals in the argument stage. The Wage Gap: The Washington Post only includes one factor for equal pay. They accounted for people who work in the same positions and got a result of 92% pay. This does not account for many factors such as I had stated in the first round where women work less. Glassdoor does not include hours worked either. Though Glassdoor includes more than one factor for pay, unlike the Washington Post, they still leave out one of the most dominant factors for pay. With all factors accounted for, and the illegality of discriminatory pay, there is no logical basis for feminism to be needed as fair payment is protected by law, and statistics reflect the equality of earnings. This means that there is no pay gap of any sort which feminism would be needed for. Equal Opportunity: Equal opportunity does not imply equal outcome. Just because equal results are not achieved does not mean equal opportunity has not been. There are no laws which hold women back from achieving the same results of men in the workplace. To be a CEO of a fortune 500 company you either have to have started the company or have been replaced by an existing CEO, neither of these routes are blocked by law. The number is likely low as pre-established companies often stay at the top, and profiting CEO's do not give up their spots, it is a hard market to get into now regardless of sex. 50% of the companies from the 1990's and 65 from the original 500 are still at the top. Rape: First the CDC does not include prison rape which I have stated prior, losing 200000 rape cases every year. Second they are very vague in their wording, using that 18.3% "experience" rape, however do not directly state that they were raped. This vague language would be easier to decipher if the experiment was defined, and the questions were as well. Until I can see the study resulting in those statistics, or an article explaining them, they are not definite examples of rape. There is also not proof that they examples do not include other factors such as unreported cases outside of word of mouth. Last, my source showing that women are raped 3 times as much does not include prison rape, which I stated with the source. Female Representation: Again for this, like for the fortune 500 companies, equal outcome is not indicative of an equal society, equal opportunity is, as equal outcome would have to be forced, and against individual rights. Just because there are not equal amounts of female writers, does not mean that society is not equal, it means that women are making different choices. In role playing games, there is character customization, therefore there are not main characters set to a specific gender in most cases. Call of Duty, the biggest game in console FPS has female character options. Lastly differing body types is something women care more about, in commercials about men, most are tall, muscular, and tan, typically without much change in body type outside the size of their muscles. Further Points: Feminism has rightly been under attack as the radical feminists have taken over the movement. Myths such as the wage gap are used to justify violence and silencing of speech. People realize that, in the west, feminism is not needed, and as a result it has been dying. There is no definition that can define a group, and as a result people look towards the prominent figures in feminism to find out the attitudes feminism has. When looking at figures like Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham, many are offset by feminism, and when looking at the hysteria in college campuses, they will not go near it, that is why feminism is dying. Disclaimer: I will address any rebuttals, which were wrongly placed in the argument stage, in the next stage. Sources: -https://www.forbes.com... -https://askwonder.com... -http://wwg.com... -http://variety.com... -http://www.google.com... -http://www.mainstreethost.com... -https://www.forbes.com...

  • CON

    Thank you Pro for this debate. I myself am a feminist,...

    Feminism is irrelevant in today's society

    Thank you Pro for this debate. I myself am a feminist, and I feel very strongly on this subject. Since you didn't bestow any rules, I will use this round for acceptance and provide some definitions. As Con, I will provide you with substantial arguments as to *why* we need Feminism, and how it's a benefit. Since you didn't state any definitions, I shall do so myself. Feminism : the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. Irrelevant : not connected with or relevant to something. Society : the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community. I look forward to a fun debate, good luck! Sources: https://www.google.com... https://www.google.com... https://www.google.com...

  • PRO

    This isn't to say that science and math teachers are...

    Feminism is needed in America

    Con picked three very weak arguments to attack here. 1. Wage gap: No one is saying a woman and a man with the exact same job make a different amount of money. Its not sexist, just a fact about what jobs women have and what the average pay between the genders is. Women take years off work to have kids, and are less likely to advance at the same rate as a man because of it. No issue here. 2. Rape: How is this relevant in any way to feminism? Men get raped too. Rape happens. Women are very well legally protected from getting raped. 3. Power: I find it odd Con uses this argument, because it actually contradicts her point. It is very true that CEOs and top government officials are overwhelmingly male. Look at the statistics Con provides. Women still do not seek positions of power for whatever reason (discrimination, peer pressure, desire to have a family, etc) and this is a reason for feminism to exist. A government should represent its people, and a country half filled with women should be represented by a government roughly proportional. There should also be more people of colour in congress, but that's a different issue. Now to my own arguments. I'll concede that so-called feminazis have given feminism a bad name recently. Any group will have radicals that make the whole look bad, we can't judge the idea of feminism by a few loud voices. A) Feminism, by definition, pushes for equality. We can all agree that equality is a good thing in society, and while women are not legally discriminated against (anymore), there are many other forms of discrimination. Saying we do not need feminism is like saying we don't need to worry about the rights of black Americans because there's no legal discrimination. This view ignores things like racial profiling, voter suppression, harsh drug laws, a broken welfare system, low quality access to education and healthcare in poor neighbourhoods. This view is naive and narrow minded in both cases. B) Women are horribly under represented in STEM fields. The amount of women choosing to study in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields are at an all time high, yet are still abysmally low. This is due largely to the fact that women are not encouraged to pursue these fields, even when they show promise at a young age. In elementary school, there are no real differences between female and male test scores in math and science. However in high school, the scores are very different, with boys outscoring girls 3 to 1. This is a stark contrast from scores in the 1980's, which were 13 to 1 in favour of boys. The reason for the change is not biological, but social. Girls haven't gotten smarter in the last 30 years, but it has become more normal for them to study math and science without judgement. This isn't to say that science and math teachers are actively discouraging girls from studying in their fields, but rather research shows that parents, guidance counsellors, and other instructors tend to push intelligent boys to persevere in tough subjects like physics and calculus, whereas girls are usually encouraged to switch to easier subjects at the first sign of trouble. The fact that this attitude still exists, and is robbing us of bright young scientific minds, is an excellent reason for feminism to exist. http://www.nytimes.com... http://news.sciencemag.org... C) The vestiges of the patriarchal society we are just recently emerging from still remain. While society is rapidly progressing towards equality, there are many holdovers who still think in terms of the past. Many, especially the older generation, still expect women to raise children and stay home, and frown on the childless, career motivated woman as "selfish" or "masculine". Many women also think like this too. Lots of women take their husband's surname when marrying, a tradition that hearkens back to the days of women being literal property. The media rarely showcases women for their intelligence, benevolence, or athletic ability, but often showcases them for their beauty. There's nothing wrong with being beautiful, or being proud of it. Men are also sometimes praised for their aesthetics, but much more often for athletic endeavors, business practices, charitable donations, innovations, and other features. This shows men as a varied, balanced group with a range of skills and attributes, and no one way to be useful. Take the Bechdel test for example. The test is for films, and to pass a film must have A) At least 2 named female characters B) Those two characters exchanging dialogue about something other than a man. Surprisingly, well over half of all Hollywood films fail to meet the requirements of the Bechdel test. In recent years this has been improving, with female driven film series doing well at the box office (Hunger Games, Divergent, etc). The Reverse Bechdel Test (2 male characters who talk to each other about something other than a woman) is almost never failed. So what does this tell us about feminism? Well, the Bechdel Test isn't meant to evaluate specific movies, but to observe trends across Hollywood. While the results point to more gender diversity in film, the results are still skewed in favour of male centric films. http://www.forbes.com... http://www.jhunewsletter.com...

  • CON

    First of all, I would like to state that my opponent has...

    Modern feminism is cancer.

    First of all, I would like to state that my opponent has stated no basis for his wild claim. Feminism is not a bad thing here is why , feminism is just the way that women say that they can do things just as good as any man. So my opponent believes there should be no equality which would collapse modern society as we know it so he is bringing on the demise of equality which would make us go back in time and redo the very thing we tried to fix and who knows this could even bring about slavery because without the equality of women there goes the quality for black people. In conclusion, my opponent brings about the demise of the equality in the world.

  • PRO

    I challenge you to a debate on the topic of feminism....

    Modern Day Feminism Has No Legitimacy.

    I challenge you to a debate on the topic of feminism. I believe I can offer statistics to combat your assertion that feminism is not sexist and still about equality. The rules are as follows: R1 - Acceptance Only. R2 - Opening Arguments. R3 - Question Round, Where we Each Ask The Other as Many Questions as We Want R4 - Answer Round, Where We Answer Each Other's Questions R5 - Closing Arguments. I look forward to the challenge!

  • CON

    Definition of feminism : the theory of the political,...

    Feminism is men-hating

    Definition of feminism : the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes https://www.merriam-webster.com... I just gave an example so it may seem easier to understand.

  • CON

    One of the fundamental difficulties with the issues we...

    Feminism is no longer necesary.

    Feminism is absolutely still necessary. One of the fundamental difficulties with the issues we deal with today is that most of the easy problems have been solved, Things like women legally being able to vote or join the work force or the military or a multitude of other rights are out of the way. On paper that might look like we have reached full equality of the genders, But thing aren't that simple. When you look at things such as the gender earnings gap or the rate of sexual harassment within the work place or the amount of backlash to female representation in different forms of media, Its clear to see that there are deeper rooted issues culturally that haven't been attended to and that we still need feminism to explore these complex and multifaceted problems. I would definitely love to hear exactly which rights men lack in first world countries?