Sexism Bothers Me Directly

Sexism does not bother me because it bothers women, sexism bothers me directly, although women do factor in, how can they not?

Sexism bothers me because I am a progressive. You can't not be progressive on race and gender and still claim the progressive mantle. Progressives don't get uncomfortable talking race and gender.

I came to gender from the race angle. Early physicists studying electricity quickly realized magnetism is very related to electricity. My fascination with race quickly told me gender has so much in common with race. They are twin social realities.

The spectrum concept is my small gift to gender relations.

Barackface: The Spectrum On Gender
Barackface: Race, Gender, Progressive, Conservative Divides
Barackface: The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power



I am for scientific progressivism. 10 is a good round number in science. It smells digital even.

1-10 is a gradation. It is designed to help progressives win elections. 1-10 is home to all views on gender. Each gradation is home to roughly 10% of the electorate. That is the idea. And so you can also have 10.1. That would be home to 1% of the electorate. Likewise you can dig further and label 10.1.1.

The good thing about using the spectrum concept to make progress on gender is you liberate it from identity politics and turn it into an issue politics. Men are also welcome. Making progress on gender is about building a progressive coalition of men and women.

If you build the spectrum good enough, you should be able to map gender as it exists not just in any one country, but also across the world.

Another advantage of the gender concept is that it is the least socially disruptive. Step one is mapping. Getting people to simply talk gender is a big achievement. Dee Dee Myers has come up with a book where she says the gender issues she dealt with as a college student are still the gender issues she deals with today. That is because gender has not been talked about. No talk, no progress.

Once people start talking and you map them as to where they stand on the spectrum then you can devise ways to nudge them on to the next level, to a higher plane of political consciousness.

I might see race and gender are related. But most white women don't. But you are not white, you don't belong in this conversation. When I look at you, I see race, I don't see gender. Curiously most white males see gender when they look at me. Like this guy at this bar on Saturday who takes one look at me and says he would like to throw his girlfriend off the balcony like in "Mortal Kombat." I am glad the girlfriend found that funny. That was supposed to be male bonding. Was it? "Sorry, I am not much into video games at all."

The spectrum concept is going to be especially useful to make progress on gay rights, something much more culturally charged. You got to get people talking and then you nudge them on to a higher plane of political consciousness.

Build the spectrum on every policy issue.