During an interview on the Colbert Report, Jody Williams and Stephen Colbert debated women’s rights and equality before getting into a classic battle of the sexes argument.
Williams, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, co-founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative and was talking about its goal to promote peace with justice and equality when Colbert said, “Don’t women have equality now? We went through the ‘60s, went through the ‘70s. We had Ms. magazine. It’s done.”
Williams didn’t agree. She still sees women being kept down.
Colbert let her talk and he even said women should be equal before accusing her of thinking women are better than men.
Now I’m not sure why talking about equality leads to questioning if women think they’re better than men, but it does. I got into a similar discussion with my boyfriend’s best friend Jon.
He kept asking if we were equal, and then he’d ask, “Do you think you’re better than me?” Yes to first question, no to the second.
What started this lively debate was him saying, “Feminists are just as sexist as chauvinists.” And I didn’t agree.
He had mistaken feminism for female chauvinism. They’re not the same.
Feminism is about empowering women, not dominating men. But to achieve equality between the sexes, men’s power might be questioned or threatened in the process. Cue the chauvinists to come in.
Chauvinists try to suppress women. Keep them in their place – namely, the kitchen. But feminists aren’t trying to suppress men.
We’re not looking for househusbands to order around so that, after a long day at work, we can come home and say to them, “Now go make me a sandwich.”
We want partners, not doormats or dominators.
That’s why I kept trying to tell Jon that feminism is not about who is better. It’s about equality.
By the end of the night, he shook my hand and said, “Thanks for arguing with me. It was fun.”
Now that’s what I’m talking about.