"Diversity is not our strength": Cincy's own Ramaswamy 2024!

[Dill]

(09-12-2023, 01:35 AM)pally Wrote: The whole “male authority” thing reminds me of a famous description of good coaches…they are “leader of men” like it takes a special skill or is some great special accomplishment to lead men as opposed to simply being a leader.  It’s a stupid line and so is separating male and female authority.  

Children are taught how to respond to authority in general. Teachers, police officers, parents, etc. if they fail to respond appropriately to men it generally means the adult in their life is teaching them that by words or actions.

Looks like SSF and LSUfan align on the "male authority" theme. LOL 

I'm with you on the distinction between gendered and ungendered authority.

Children are, or should, be taught to respect teachers because of the authority of their office, not because of gender. 
A male teacher exercising that authority is then not exercising "male authority," nor should be seen as such 
if we want a society based on gender equality. Women are not more prevalent teaching lower grades because, as LSUfan says,
children "trust" them more, but because these have traditionally been women's jobs, like nursing, aligned with traditional gender norms
which define women as "nurturing." As gender equality advances, we see more men in those positions, as they feel less stigma
attached to what was formerly "women's work." 

I guess for some, though, there is no such thing as non-gendered "authority in general." It's all inflected by gender to some degree. That is
a very traditional view of gender relations, which sees them as defined more by "nature" than by culture.  

Most people in our society agree that it is good for a child to have both parents. But I don't recall anyone lamenting that a child who lacks a
mother may need female "authority" to balance development.  

The notion of "females IN authority" as a social problem does arise in other discussions though. E.g., in developing countries like India, the increase of women in police forces and other positions of power and authority does bring negative reactions from a male populace used to thinking of authority in starkly gender-based terms. They don't want women telling them what to do. It would be interesting to compare masculinist attitudes across cultures. We're supposedly more "progressive" than traditional societies, but it seems to me that strong reactions to gender equality and feminism inform our politics still.