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Equal Rights to Equal Lefts? Claressa Shields Challenges Keith Thurman to Boxing Brawl
I'm all for women's rights, but we might be headed in the wrong direction…
I have to start by saying it took me a while to gather my thoughts on this one. As a devout womanist, I have very strong opinions about violence against women, especially when it's at the hands of a man.
One thing I have always found incredibly triggering is how men routinely threaten women with violence whenever the mere notion of equal rights is mentioned. I literally can't count how many times I ended up in knock-down-drag-out debates because I was talking about equal pay, and some man immediately reduced the entire conversation to
Equal rights? Well, you must be ready for these equal lefts!
I'm sorry, what?!
Listen, we're not in the stone age anymore and are certainly a far cry from the "traditional" 1950s. The vast majority of women now work, and many of us even take care of most of the financial responsibilities for our families alone. Most men neither want nor can provide women with a lifestyle that enables them to be stay-at-home moms or even housewives, for that matter. In fact, an increasing number of women are starting to outearn men in specific sectors (while also doing most of the housework and childrearing.) So, I'm baffled why it's so controversial that women want to be paid equally for doing the same jobs as men.
Granted, I do see how some jobs are physically demanding, and in many such sectors, women are often given the positions requiring the least heavy lifting. Outside of that, women typically pull just as much weight or even more than their male counterparts. In fact, if you look at the careers with the most significant wage gaps, they are not jobs where men have any real advantage over women.
So, why are men so threatened when women want to be paid equally for these positions? Is it that some of you realize that's the only real leverage you have over women? And if you…
