[ The Platform for Action for the Fourth World Conference on Women,
the document being prepared for the upcoming U.N. conference in
Beijing, is based on certain assumptions about the natures of
femininity and masculinity. These assumptions must be brought to
light, since they are based on a radical feminist ideology which is
not shared by the majority of the world's women.]
God made men and women equal
and different.
The UN can't make them the same
and it shouldn't try.
Certain developed nations and influential NGOs want the Platform for
Action for the Fourth World Conference on Women to have a "gender
perspective". When others demanded a definition of gender they were
told that this wasn't needed. Of course, they said, gender means male
and female, but the definition has also evolved to a broader meaning.
Let's just make a nice vague statement and get on with it.
What precisely does gender mean to the supporters of the gender
perspective and why are they unwilling to spell it out for all the
world to see?
Read through all the writings of gender feminists and those who
promote the gender perspective and you will see that gender does not
mean male and female - it is not a synonym for sex. Just as Bella
Abzug said in her speech it means socially constructed roles that can
be changed.
And what are these socially constructed roles:
Manhood and Womanhood
Masculinity and Femininity
Heterosexuality, Homosexuality, and Bisexuality
Motherhood and Fatherhood
Indeed, according to gender feminists everything we think of as human
nature is actually only socially constructed roles that can be
changed.
And make no mistake about, the Platform for Action is designed to
change human nature - to make women and men the same. Read through it
line by line and try to find any place that isn't bracketed where
there is unqualified support for motherhood as a woman's primary
vocation.
The UN should not be wasting its time and the energies trying to make
men like women, fathers like mothers, homosexuality equal to
heterosexuality. If gender is left undefined or defined as socially
constructed roles that can be changed, all the energies this
conference could have directed toward improving the lot of women will
be dissipated in a futile attempt to abolish human nature.
by Dale O'Leary
CRNet: "Dale O'Leary"
CompuServe: 74747,2241
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