An excercise

[adrienmundi]

Just for fun, try substituting any ethnic label (Albanian, Korean, Black, Iberian, etc.) for either "men" or "women" in the media, and then think about what sort of reaction such commentary would engender in the public. I'm curious as to your results.

Comments

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

possibly because i am slow, but
'fraid not

[adrienmundi]

That ethnicity is not a dominant, or fundamental, criteria? Ethnicity seems to be relegated to luck/accident, not an assumption of nature.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

I am actually not sure that is entirely accurate (especially if we are talking about assumptions)
This is why it seemed to me that the analogy you are drawing is counterproductive in regards to the argument yu are trying to make. Will elaborate later

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

just real quick however, there is often an assumption of 'nature' in ethnic/racial classifications and moreover, "naturalness" is actually NOT the core enemy. An assumption of pure form is.

[adrienmundi]

Ah, OK, I think I've regained the perspective I had when I began this thread. I think what I meant was that there appears to be more of an awareness about 'ethnicity' such that offhand comments aren't made the same way as they are about 'gender', at least in public and polite company.

[skiadaimonos.livejournal.com]

also, would you please point me to a media source where the above experiment would be applicable?