Comments on Viva la Feminista: Why I Give to Women-Focused Relief Organizations

It doesn't matter whether or not men are victi...

2010-01-26T17:30:12.642-06:00

It doesn't matter whether or not men are victims of domestic violence, women are victims of domestic violence, etc. Help should be made available to EVERYONE, not just women. This should be the case in all countries, by the way, not just Haiti, so the assertion that women comprise the majority of domestic violence victims is irrelevant.

Also, in response to "This isn't stereotyping or sexism, it's fact-based analysis of aid efforts to many impoverished communities."
I'm reminded of Don Quixote's "Facts are the enemy of truth."

Finally, I should state that just because women's needs are different from men's needs does NOT imply that
1. men don't have needs, and
2. aid should be for women only.
Which is why we should give to organizations like the American Red Cross, organizations who are out to help people *objectively*; "objectively" is the key word here.

Those of you saying that the OP's statements a...

2010-01-26T16:05:04.608-06:00

Those of you saying that the OP's statements are based on stereotypes and misinformation would do well to consider Nicholas Kristof's analysis of why helping women is more effective for entire communities. Not only does investing in women yield higher returns, it also improves the overall health and well-being of the community because women tend to use those resources in more egalitarian ways.

The Times ran an excerpt from his book last year:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html

This isn't stereotyping or sexism, it's fact-based analysis of aid efforts to many impoverished communities.

While organizations like CARE provide care that wo...

2010-01-26T12:58:57.404-06:00

While organizations like CARE provide care that women need but men don't (health-related mostly), they also are providing help to men in the form of hygiene products, mattresses, clean water, food, shelter, and much more. These organizations are providing care that women need to survive (not to make their menstruation more comfortable) and for their families to survive. Just because they're providing support to women, doesn't mean their efforts don't have an effect on men. I think any expectant father whose wife is pregnant right now is very grateful that gender-specific care is available.

And keep in mind that this post is about Haiti, not the US. So unless you've got statistics to prove how most of the people in Haiti living in poverty are male, or how men are abused as much as women in Haiti, that arguments like some of the ones mentioned here hold no weight with this discussion.

Men are the majority of people saving others in Ha...

2010-01-25T22:01:57.426-06:00

Men are the majority of people saving others in Haiti, not women.

I think sustaining these men who are saving people is a lot more important than making women less uncomfortable when they menstruate. Not a requirement.

Men are always the vast majority of homeless. Don't dare to claim women are the major victims of poverty.

Men are at the highest levels of public office because they earned it and statistically speaking are much more likely to do so. Partially because men tend to be more motivated to seek such roles and partially because the variance of men's intelligence is higher. This means we see more men at the top - CEOs, politicians - and more men at the bottom - the mentally challenged. The average man has no overall advantages over women.

Pro-woman IS anti-man today. If it were about equal rights for both sexes it would fly. That's not what feminism is about today, it's about female privileges OVER men. They are intertwined.

WOMEN initiate domestic violence at least as often as men so please don't claim men don't have to deal with domestic violence much.

BexB, You're right, I apologize. The error l...

2010-01-25T20:00:05.093-06:00

BexB,

You're right, I apologize. The error lies with the person who said "But, women are often hardest hit when disaster strikes because they were at a deficit even before the catastrophe."

However, your assertion that "there are health concerns for women that men will never suffer with" only tells one side of the story. For example, men may not have to deal with domestic violence that much, but they ARE victims and deserve help. Further, if you accept the premise that the men provide for their families, then men will need to find employment all of a sudden in the event of a crisis.

Finally BexB, you mention "If politics were truly dominated by this ideology, the governing bodies of the dominant western nations wouldn’t be comprised mostly of (white, straight, able-bodied) males. Ergo, that argument is self-defeating." This is a misconception. The women = good, men = bad attitude persists IN SPITE OF the governing bodies of dominant western nations being comprised of "(white, straight, able-bodied) males".

Further, the "women = good, men = bad" attitude is so embedded in our culture, it is hard to notice it. For the record, I'm not trying to make this into a women good men bad post; politicians do this already.

It's extremely silly to try to make this into ...

2010-01-25T17:13:32.508-06:00

It's extremely silly to try to make this into a "women good men bad" post. Veronica's point--that women need a different sort of aid than men do, a need that may not be addressed by more general, though worthy, charities--is simply practical. The Red Cross is fantastic, but it gets a lot of attention already. Why not point people in the direction of some lesser-known charities that are moving to help with issues that might otherwise be overlooked?

What an amazingly sexist sentiment. Sounds more li...

2010-01-25T15:23:07.832-06:00

What an amazingly sexist sentiment. Sounds more like people want the return of the days of the titanic (women and children first and the like). One could say that women only like equality when it suits....There is a belief among some that feminism has shifted from a female rights movement to a female privileges movement. Sounds to me like you support that shift.

One could also make the argument that we should give more to men. After all, men are generally physically stronger and therefore in the hard, physically demanding times that will come, men are more likely to support their families and rebuild the nation.

And to Priya, unfortunately such an organization doesn't exist (as far as I know). One thing that I guarantee: I will not give to any organization that prioritizes the life of one person over another based upon gender. To do otherwise is to engage in sexism - no matter how you want to rationalize it to make yourself feel better.

I added a cartoon & a link to a Women eNews ar...

2010-01-25T11:35:34.646-06:00

I added a cartoon & a link to a Women eNews article about pregnant women in Haiti in the main post. Thanks for the comments all!

Give what you can, where YOU want. Just give!

Vince M, Nowhere in my post did I state that '...

2010-01-25T10:39:42.869-06:00

Vince M,

Nowhere in my post did I state that 'women are the main victims for poverty', as that is an ill-judged statement and belittles the suffering of men living in its grip. I said women have 'particular concerns'(exact words) that need to be seen to, and if I may elaborate on this a little, I believe these concerns are best served by gender-specific charities, as a more impartial charity's resources may be distributed across too far a social demographic to be as effective in addressing gender-specific issues. And I certainly did not state that women 'deserve' more aid. In my opinion, that's imparting a moral judgment on something that should be considered from a purely practical angle - who most needs the help?

I did take a moment before posting to consider any special requirements male victims of disasters may have that do not also apply to women, and I struggled to think of any. It is not true in reverse, however. As I stated, there are health concerns for women that men will never suffer with, and this is before considering women’s typical lower economic and social status and limited mobility due to being the primary child carers.

If I may use a (somewhat farfetched) analogy to explain my point – imagine a poor community is stricken with a sudden, widespread and inexplicable rise in the number of cancer cases in its people. Would it be best to simply send in a general, pan-cancer health body? Or would you also dispatch specialist teams to deal with gender-specific cancers (Prostate and ovarian), as all cancers are different and require different treatment and knowledge? (Not to mention the different psychological and social needs of the sufferers – a man suffering from cancer will need time off work/may lose his job and become unable to support his family. A woman who undergoes a double mastectomy may be ostracised by an undereducated community, etc.)

Yes, considering women more ‘needing’ of aid because of a perceived social role is stereotypical, and dare I say, sexist. However, it is almost universally the case that women in poor communities are delegated to the lower-status roles of mother and carer.

I don’t see your ‘men = bad, women = good’ point, I’m sorry to say. If politics were truly dominated by this ideology, the governing bodies of the dominant western nations wouldn’t be comprised mostly of (white, straight, able-bodied) males. Ergo, that argument is self-defeating.

Which isn’t to say that I believe our society to be free of anti-male sexism. Far from it. But in my opinion, that’s a discussion for another time. This article was about being pro-woman, not anti-man. And contrary to popular belief, they are not one and the same.

BexB, I don't think you see the irony of Priya...

2010-01-25T08:42:55.907-06:00

BexB, I don't think you see the irony of Priya's comment. There SHOULD be relief organizations that benefit men only, but it's not politically correct to do so, so you only find ones for women.

BexB, your argument that women are the main victims of poverty would've been true had organizations like CARE, the Girl Effect, and UNIFEM not existed.

What's more, the argument has been made (not necessarily by BexB) that women deserve more aid because they care for families and educate a generation (versus a guy, who educates a family), among other things. This claim is hardly accurate, as it is based on stereotypes. What's more, it is an example of the men = bad, women = good attitude that sadly dominates most of politics today.

If anything, our aid-giving should be EGALITARIAN. This is why I gladly texted "Haiti" to 90999 and don't plan on donating to any organization that only focuses on one gender. By the way, if there were no organizations that focused on women, but rather on men only, I wouldn't donate to them either for the exact same reason.

Priya, an organisation such as? Did you read this...

2010-01-25T07:16:11.626-06:00

Priya, an organisation such as?

Did you read this post? The OP makes a very good point. The fact of the matter is that in impoverished communities such as Haiti, everyone suffers the malady of poverty, but there are particular concerns for women.
An article linked to in the OP explains a few of these - after a disaster, for example, abortion numbers and rates of violence against women rise.

There's a reason charities supporting specifically women exist, and you're hard pressed to find equivalents for men.

If you'd bothered to click through to the link in the OP, you'd have found this quote which sums the OP's point up nicely;

'All Haitians are suffering right now. But, women are often hardest hit when disaster strikes because they were at a deficit even before the catastrophe. In Haiti, and in every country, women are the poorest and often have no safety net, leaving them most exposed to violence, homelessness and hunger in the wake of disasters.'

Well, to balance out your giving of donations to a...

2010-01-24T19:48:15.196-06:00

Well, to balance out your giving of donations to a women's relief organization, I'll give my donations to an organization that primarily benefits men :) After all, men deserve all the care the women get.