Thread by @RokoMijicUK

I recently had my mind changed on quite an important topic. The topic, which I have been casually playing with, is feminism!

What is feminism?

Try to explain it in terms that an alien from Andromeda could understand, indeed an alien that came from an asexual species.

(1/)

You read the alien the definition of "feminism" from Google.

"Oh," xe says, "so humans are actually an asexual species since 'women' = 'men' you actually don't have different genders?"

ah, problem.

"No, you see when we say 'equal', we don't mean 'equal'..."

(2/)

👽: "What do you mean then?"

👨‍🦰: "Um, well, um, like historically women were oppressed"

👽: "Why? If they're the same as men why would that happen?"

👨‍🦰: "Well they're physically weaker you see"

👽: "What about the weaker men? Were they oppressed too?"

👨‍🦰: "Um..."

(3/)

👩‍🦰: "Weaker men were definitely oppressed. But women were systematically oppressed!"

👽: "Why?"

👩‍🦰: "Patriarchy! A conspiracy of men to oppress women!"

👽: "Hmmm ok, but it says here that 80% of males in your species never reproduced?"

psmag.com/environment/17…

👽: "This looks a lot like groups of men conspiring to oppress other men"

👩‍🦰: "Yes but, ... um ... "

👽: "Surely you should have a movement that helps the lowest-status in your society to get more out of life, irrespective of gender."

👽: "What percentage of the humans without shelter are male?"

👩‍🦰: " um ... most ... 70%?"

telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-m…

👩‍🦰: "Feminism aims to help everyone who's oppressed, not just women!"

👽: "Oh, ok, so feminism = socialism?"

👨‍🦰: "no, I mean they are related ... sort of ... but women need a special movement just to deal with their specific problems!"

👽: "Oh, ok, specialization! Good!"

👽: "So I guess there's a men's rights movement as well, and you all support that too?"

👨‍🦰👩‍🦰: "NOOOO!"

👩‍🦰: "They're evil!"

👨‍🦰: "They're losers! They just can't attract mates"

👽: "So does that apply to feminists too?"

👨‍🦰👩‍🦰: "NO! NO!"

👽: "So why the asymmetry?"

👽: "As far as I have been told, men and women are equal, doesn't that mean that men's rights and feminism are equal?"

👨‍🦰👩‍🦰: "NO, it doesn't work like that!"

👽: "Well, then humans, how does it work?"

👩‍🦰: "Well it's oppression ... "

👽: "We already covered that."

👽: "Because of the way reproduction works in your species, men are strongly incentivized to oppress OTHER MEN"

👽: "Your history and your prehistory make this abundantly clear"

👽: "I think I can see where the asymmetry creeps in"

👽: "What you name 'woman' is the form of human who pays a large fraction of the cost for making a new human. I'll call them 'Makers' "

👽: "What you name 'man' is the form of human who pays a tiny fraction of the cost for making a new human. I'll call them 'Blueprinters' "

👽: "One Blueprinter can produce new humans with 500 Makers, but not vice-versa"

👽: "This means that the payoff distribution for Blueprinters is extremely skewed. From this we can predict that Blueprinters will evolve to take more risks and display more variability"

👩‍🦰: "ok"

👽: "This greater Blueprinter variability explains why your Blueprinters are found more often at the top of your hierarchies and at the bottom"

👽: "But I don't yet see where there is a 'Woman-help' movement but not a similarly popular 'Man-help' movement"

👨‍🦰: "It's because the men, or 'Blueprinters' as you call them, at the top of hierarchies didn't want to let women, ahem, 'Makers' into certain positions such as as leaders"

👽: "Is this much more of a problem than the low quality blueprinters who sleep on cold stone?"

👽: "And why can't your species just make peace with the asymmetries implied by your reproductive strategy?"

👽: "Makers already get a good deal out of life, though recently a bit worse, due to ... forcing them to behave like Blueprinters!"

theguardian.com/money/2019/jan…

👩‍🦰: "Alien, you can't say that! It's sexist!"

👽: "What is 'Sexism' ?"

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