WEBVTT NOTE 3. The Male Chauvinist Pig 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Chapter 3. The Male Chauvinist Pig 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:13.000 The women's liberation movement is an amalgam of different programs and composed of diverse groups with differing aims. 3 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:23.000 The discriminating intellect may accept some of the aims, purposes, motivations and programs of women's liberation and reject others. 4 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:33.000 It would be folly to treat as equivalent a host of different values and attitudes merely because they have been packaged together. 5 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:42.000 The views of the women's liberation movement can be divided into four major categories, each of which requires a different approach. 6 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 Coercive Actions Taken Against Women 7 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.000 Apart from murder, the most brutal coercive action taken against women is rape. 8 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:58.160 Yet, in this male-dominated society, rape is not always illegal. 9 00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:02.680 It is not illegal when perpetrated upon a woman by her husband. 10 00:01:02.680 --> 00:01:08.440 And although rape is illegal when it occurs outside the sanctity of marriage, the way 11 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:13.280 in which it is treated by the law leaves much to be desired. 12 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:19.840 For one thing, if there was any previous acquaintanceship between the rapist and his victim, the court 13 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:26.540 presumes that there was no rape. For another, in order to prove rape, it was necessary in 14 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:33.200 many states until recently that there be a witness to the crime. Furthermore, if friends 15 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:39.000 of the rapist swore they had sexual intercourse with the victim, she could be characterized 16 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.760 as immoral, and it becomes virtually impossible to obtain a conviction. If the victim is a 17 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:50.760 For a prostitute, it is equally impossible to obtain a conviction. 18 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:56.240 The reasoning behind the legal inability for a prostitute to be raped is the ludicrous 19 00:01:56.240 --> 00:02:02.380 view that it is impossible to compel a person to do that, which she does willingly at other 20 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:04.440 times. 21 00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:09.260 One of the most attractive aspects of the women's liberation movement is its support 22 00:02:09.260 --> 00:02:14.680 for greater penalties for rape, plus restitution to the victim. 23 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:31.680 Previously, people who occupied a comparable position on the political spectrum, as do most of today's feminists, for example, liberals and leftists, urged lighter sentences for rapists and general mollycoddling of criminals. 24 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:41.680 In their view, all crime, rape included, was caused mainly by poverty, family breakdown, lack of recreational facilities, etc. 25 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:46.680 and their solution followed directly from this insight. 26 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:53.680 More welfare, more parks and playgrounds for the underprivileged, counseling, therapy, etc. 27 00:02:53.680 --> 00:03:03.680 In contrast, the feminist's insistence on stiffer jail sentences for rapists and worse comes like a breath of fresh air. 28 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:10.680 Although rape is the most striking instance in which the government acquiesces in coercive actions against women, 29 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.480 against Women, there are others. 30 00:03:13.480 --> 00:03:17.560 Consider what is implied by the laws against prostitution. 31 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:22.400 These laws prohibit trade between mutually consenting adults. 32 00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:27.240 They are harmful to women in that they prevent them from earning an honest living. 33 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:33.280 If their anti-woman bias is not clear enough, consider the fact that although the transaction 34 00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:39.860 is just as illegal for the customer as for the seller, the male customer is almost never 35 00:03:39.860 --> 00:03:44.440 or arrested when the female seller is. 36 00:03:44.440 --> 00:03:46.860 Abortion is another case in point. 37 00:03:46.860 --> 00:03:53.180 Although inroads have finally been made, abortion is limited by obstructive rules. 38 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:59.160 Both outright prohibition of abortion and abortion under present controls deny the great 39 00:03:59.160 --> 00:04:02.500 moral principle of self-ownership. 40 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:08.440 Thus they are throwbacks to slavery, a situation essentially defined by the barriers put up 41 00:04:08.440 --> 00:04:12.440 Between People and Their Right of Self-Ownership 42 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:18.440 If a woman owns her body, then she owns her womb, and she alone has the complete 43 00:04:18.440 --> 00:04:22.440 and sole right to determine whether to have a child or not. 44 00:04:22.440 --> 00:04:31.440 The ways in which the government supports or is itself actively involved in coercing women are manifold. 45 00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:36.440 Until very recently, for example, women did not have the same rights as men 46 00:04:36.440 --> 00:04:42.840 to own property or to engage in contracts. There are still laws on the books that prevent 47 00:04:42.840 --> 00:04:49.560 married women, but not married men, from selling property or engaging in business without the 48 00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:55.600 permission of their spouses. There are stiffer entrance requirements for women than men at 49 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:02.000 some state universities. The infamous tracking system in our public schools shunts young 50 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:18.080 It is important to realize that these problems all have two things in common. 51 00:05:18.080 --> 00:05:24.320 They are instances of aggressive force used against women, and they are all inextricably 52 00:05:24.320 --> 00:05:28.240 bound up with the apparatus of the State. 53 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:34.080 Although not widely appreciated, this is no more true of rape and prostitution than of 54 00:05:34.080 --> 00:05:37.720 the other actions and activities described. 55 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:43.720 For what does it mean to say that women do not have the right to abort, to own property, 56 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:49.800 or to set up businesses, except that women who engage in these activities will be stopped 57 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:54.360 by state compulsion, fines, or jail sentences? 58 00:05:54.360 --> 00:06:00.160 Clearly, both the government as well as individuals can discriminate. 59 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:06.840 But only state and not private discrimination violate the rights of women. 60 00:06:06.840 --> 00:06:13.960 When a private individual discriminates, he or she does so with his or her own resources, 61 00:06:13.960 --> 00:06:16.680 in his or her own name. 62 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:22.600 But when the state discriminates, it does so with resources taken from its citizenry 63 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:28.600 and in the name of all of its subjects. This is a crucial difference. 64 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:36.600 If a private enterprise such as a movie discriminates, it runs the risk of losing money and possible bankruptcy. 65 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:42.600 People opposing the discrimination may withhold funds or not patronize the institution. 66 00:06:42.600 --> 00:06:50.600 However, when the state discriminates, these people do not have this option and there is no risk of bankruptcy. 67 00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:57.600 Even when people oppose discrimination in a state institution from which they can withhold funds, 68 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:03.600 students can, for example, at a state university, the state has other alternatives, 69 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:12.600 it can make up for the dwindling funds from tax revenues, and these must be paid under threat of compulsion. 70 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:19.600 Even the pinches that women are subject to are inextricably bound up with the state apparatus. 71 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:34.600 Contrast what happens when sexual harassment takes place within the confines of a private place, a department store, and when it takes place outside, on a street one block away from the store. 72 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:45.600 When a woman is molested within the confines of a private place, the whole force of the profit and loss free enterprise system comes to bear on the problem. 73 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:52.300 It is in the entrepreneur's self-interest to apprehend and discourage offensive actions. 74 00:07:52.300 --> 00:07:55.600 If he does not, he will lose customers. 75 00:07:55.600 --> 00:08:02.360 There is, in effect, competition between store owners to provide safe and comfortable environments 76 00:08:02.360 --> 00:08:04.180 for customers. 77 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:09.720 The ones who succeed to the greatest degree in their anti-pinching drive will tend to 78 00:08:09.720 --> 00:08:12.120 reap the greatest profits. 79 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:18.080 The ones who fail, whether because they ignore the issue or are unsuccessful in implementing 80 00:08:18.080 --> 00:08:22.860 their programs, will tend to incur the greatest losses. 81 00:08:22.860 --> 00:08:29.200 This of course is not a guarantee that pinching and other offensive behavior will cease. 82 00:08:29.200 --> 00:08:34.520 It will always occur, as long as people remain imperfectly moral. 83 00:08:34.520 --> 00:08:41.040 But this system does encourage by profits and losses those who are most able to control 84 00:08:41.040 --> 00:08:48.780 Contrasted with what occurs in the public domain, however, the private system begins 85 00:08:48.780 --> 00:08:51.700 to look like perfection itself. 86 00:08:51.700 --> 00:08:57.020 In the public domain, there is almost no incentive to deal with the problem. 87 00:08:57.020 --> 00:09:03.960 There is no one who automatically loses anything when a woman is pinched or otherwise harassed. 88 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:09.700 The city police are supposedly charged with the responsibility, but they function without 89 00:09:09.700 --> 00:09:38.440 Non-coercive actions taken against women 90 00:09:38.440 --> 00:09:43.640 Many actions taken against women are not, strictly speaking, coercive. 91 00:09:43.640 --> 00:09:51.120 For example, whistling, leering, derision, innuendo, unwelcome flirtation, etc. 92 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:56.640 Of course, it is often difficult to tell beforehand whether a flirtatious remark will be welcome 93 00:09:56.640 --> 00:09:58.640 or not. 94 00:09:58.640 --> 00:10:04.000 Consider the sexual come-ons which continually occur between men and women. 95 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:08.960 Although to many people, and especially those in the women's movement, there is no real 96 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:16.160 difference between this type of behavior and coercive acts, the distinction is crucial. 97 00:10:16.160 --> 00:10:22.760 Both may be objectionable to many women, but one is a physically invasive act, the other 98 00:10:22.760 --> 00:10:24.640 is not. 99 00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:29.800 There are many other kinds of actions which fall into the same category. 100 00:10:29.800 --> 00:10:36.600 Examples include the use of sexual vulgarisms, broad or piece of ass, the advocacy of double 101 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:42.460 standard mores, certain rules of etiquette, the encouragement of the mental capacity of 102 00:10:42.460 --> 00:10:49.320 boys and not of girls, the societal opprobrium of women who participate in male athletic 103 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:56.080 activities, sexist advertising and the pedestals that women are placed upon. 104 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:01.520 There are two important points to be made with regard to these and other attitudes and 105 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:06.240 behavior which may be offensive, but not coercive. 106 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:12.560 The first is that such non-coercive actions cannot legitimately be outlawed. 107 00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:18.960 Any attempt to do so would involve the mass violation of the rights of other individuals. 108 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:24.280 Freedom of speech means that people have the right to say whatever they like, even to make 109 00:11:24.280 --> 00:11:28.600 Possibly Reprehensible and Boorish Statements. 110 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:33.300 The second point is more complicated, and by no means obvious. 111 00:11:33.300 --> 00:11:40.200 To a considerable extent, these reprehensible but non-coercive actions are themselves fostered 112 00:11:40.200 --> 00:11:47.080 and encouraged by coercive statist activities, which operate behind the scenes. 113 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:54.080 For example, the widespread incidence of government ownership and management of land, parks, sidewalks, 114 00:11:54.080 --> 00:12:01.840 walks, roads, businesses, etc. These coercive activities based on illegitimate compulsory 115 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:09.440 taxation can be legitimately criticized. If they were eliminated, the unsavory but legal 116 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:15.760 behavior they support would diminish with the aid of the free market. 117 00:12:15.760 --> 00:12:21.840 Consider as an example the case in which a male boss harasses a female secretary in an 118 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:25.600 in an objectionable but non-coercive manner. 119 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:33.000 We shall compare the situation when such activity takes place on public and private property. 120 00:12:33.000 --> 00:12:40.040 To analyze this, we must understand what the labor economist calls compensating differentials. 121 00:12:40.040 --> 00:12:46.680 A compensating differential is the amount of money just necessary to compensate an employee 122 00:12:46.680 --> 00:12:50.640 for the psychic losses that go with the job. 123 00:12:50.640 --> 00:12:56.760 For instance, suppose there are two job opportunities. One is in an air-conditioned office with 124 00:12:56.760 --> 00:13:03.440 a good view, pleasant surroundings and pleasant co-workers. The other is in a damp basement 125 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:10.520 surrounded by hostile fellow workers. However, there is usually some wage differential large 126 00:13:10.520 --> 00:13:17.180 enough to attract an individual to the less pleasant job. The exact amount of the differential 127 00:13:17.180 --> 00:13:22.140 All varies for different people, but it exists. 128 00:13:22.140 --> 00:13:29.020 Just as a compensating differential must be paid to hire employees to work in damp basements, 129 00:13:29.020 --> 00:13:36.100 so it must be paid to female workers in offices where they are subject to sexual harassment. 130 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:41.980 This increase in wages comes out of the boss's pocket if he is a private businessman. 131 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:49.980 Thus he has a strong monetary incentive to control his behavior and the behavior of those who work for him. 132 00:13:49.980 --> 00:13:56.980 But the increase in wages is not paid by the boss of a government or government-supported enterprise. 133 00:13:56.980 --> 00:14:06.980 It is paid by the taxpayer's money, which is not paid upon the deliverance of satisfactory services, but is collected by coercion. 134 00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:12.820 Thus, the boss has less reason to exercise control. 135 00:14:12.820 --> 00:14:19.500 It is clear that this type of sexual harassment, in itself offensive but not coercive, is made 136 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:26.060 possible by the coercive actions of the government in its role as tax collector. 137 00:14:26.060 --> 00:14:32.340 If taxes were paid voluntarily, the boss, even in a government office, would be subject 138 00:14:32.340 --> 00:14:34.500 to meaningful control. 139 00:14:34.500 --> 00:14:40.540 He would stand to lose money if his behavior offended his employees, but because he is 140 00:14:40.540 --> 00:14:47.380 supported by money from coercive taxation, his employees are at his mercy. 141 00:14:47.380 --> 00:14:53.620 In like manner, contrast the situation where a group of men whistle, jeer and make disparaging 142 00:14:53.620 --> 00:14:58.940 and insulting remarks to and about women passers-by. 143 00:14:58.940 --> 00:15:05.100 One group does this on a publicly owned sidewalk or street, the other in a privately owned 144 00:15:05.100 --> 00:15:09.460 place, such as a restaurant or shopping mall. 145 00:15:09.460 --> 00:15:16.540 Now under which condition is this legal but reprehensible behavior more likely to be ended? 146 00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:23.200 In the public sector, it is in no business person's financial interest to end the harassment. 147 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:28.700 Since by assumption this behavior is legal, the public police forces cannot do anything 148 00:15:28.700 --> 00:15:31.380 to stop it either. 149 00:15:31.380 --> 00:15:38.140 But in the realm of private enterprise, every entrepreneur who hopes to employ or sell to 150 00:15:38.140 --> 00:15:45.700 women, or to men who object to this maltreatment of women, has a strong pecuniary incentive 151 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:47.360 to end it. 152 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:53.980 This is why it is no accident that such harassment almost always takes place on public sidewalks 153 00:15:53.980 --> 00:16:10.700 The Male Chauvinist Pig as Hero 154 00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:35.060 Laws Compelling Equal Wages for Equal Work 155 00:16:35.060 --> 00:16:39.900 The question is, of course, how to define equal work. 156 00:16:39.900 --> 00:16:46.300 If equal work is taken literally, it embraces all aspects of the employee's productivity 157 00:16:46.300 --> 00:16:52.340 in the short run as well as in the long run, including psychic differentials, the discrimination 158 00:16:52.340 --> 00:17:02.340 and the ability of the employee to mesh with the likes, dislikes and idiosyncrasies of the entrepreneur. 159 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:12.340 In short, all these components must be weighted if equal work is exactly the same as equal profitability for the entrepreneur. 160 00:17:12.340 --> 00:17:21.340 Only then in the free market, workers with such equal abilities will tend to earn equal wages. 161 00:17:21.340 --> 00:17:27.500 If, for instance, women were paid less than men even though they were equally good workers 162 00:17:27.500 --> 00:17:34.480 in this sense, forces would be set up which, when carried to their conclusion, would ensure 163 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.020 equal pay. 164 00:17:36.020 --> 00:17:37.240 How? 165 00:17:37.240 --> 00:17:43.840 The employer would be able to make more money by replacing male workers with female workers. 166 00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:50.300 The demand for male workers would decrease, thus lowering male wages, and the demand for 167 00:17:50.300 --> 00:17:55.340 for Female Workers would increase, raising female wages. 168 00:17:55.340 --> 00:18:00.980 Every employer who substituted a woman for a man would have a competitive advantage over 169 00:18:00.980 --> 00:18:03.940 the one who refused to do so. 170 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:11.180 The profit-maximizing employers would continually earn greater profits than would the discriminatory 171 00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:12.260 employers. 172 00:18:12.260 --> 00:18:17.900 The profit-maximizers would be able to undersell the discriminators and, other things being 173 00:18:17.900 --> 00:18:28.820 In actual point of fact, however, the proponents of equal wages for equal work do not have 174 00:18:28.820 --> 00:18:32.900 this strict type of equality in mind. 175 00:18:32.900 --> 00:18:39.300 Their definition of equality is equal years of schooling, equivalent skills, equivalent 176 00:18:39.300 --> 00:18:45.180 college degrees, and perhaps similar scores in qualification tests. 177 00:18:45.180 --> 00:18:52.500 However, individuals who are virtually identical with respect to such criteria can have vastly 178 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:56.860 different abilities to earn profits for employers. 179 00:18:56.860 --> 00:19:04.080 For example, consider two workers, one male, one female, identical as far as test scores 180 00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:07.100 and college degrees are concerned. 181 00:19:07.100 --> 00:19:13.140 It is an indisputable fact that in the event of a pregnancy, it is far more likely for 182 00:19:13.140 --> 00:19:17.620 for the woman to stay home and raise the child. 183 00:19:17.620 --> 00:19:22.300 Consideration of whether this custom is fair or not is not relevant. 184 00:19:22.300 --> 00:19:26.460 What is pertinent is whether it is factual or not. 185 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:32.040 If the woman stays at home, interrupting a career or employment, she will be worth less 186 00:19:32.040 --> 00:19:34.060 to the employer. 187 00:19:34.060 --> 00:19:39.460 In this case, although the male and female candidates for the job might be identically 188 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:55.100 Paradoxically, many pieces of evidence which indicate that men and women are not equally 189 00:19:55.100 --> 00:19:59.860 productive come from the women's liberation movement itself. 190 00:19:59.860 --> 00:20:05.620 There are several studies in which women and men were first tested as groups in isolation 191 00:20:05.620 --> 00:20:11.020 in Competition with One Another. 192 00:20:11.020 --> 00:20:16.300 In some cases, when the groups were tested in isolation, the women showed clearly that 193 00:20:16.300 --> 00:20:19.700 they had higher innate abilities than the men. 194 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:26.620 Yet, when the two groups were tested in competition, the men invariably scored better than the 195 00:20:26.620 --> 00:20:27.620 women. 196 00:20:27.620 --> 00:20:34.940 Again, it should be emphasized that the concern here is not with the fairness of such occurrences, 197 00:20:34.940 --> 00:20:37.220 with the Effects. 198 00:20:37.220 --> 00:20:42.940 The point is that in the world of work, women will often find themselves in competition 199 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:44.460 with men. 200 00:20:44.460 --> 00:20:50.620 If they constantly defer to men and cannot do their best in competition with men, they 201 00:20:50.620 --> 00:20:56.600 are in fact of less help in procuring profits for the entrepreneur. 202 00:20:56.600 --> 00:21:02.620 If women are equal to men in test scores and are inferior to them when it comes to profit 203 00:21:02.620 --> 00:21:10.020 maximizing, then the equal pay for equal work law will prove disastrous for women. 204 00:21:10.020 --> 00:21:16.740 It will be calamitous because the profit maximizing incentives will be turned around. 205 00:21:16.740 --> 00:21:23.740 Instead of the market exerting a strong steady push toward firing men and hiring women, employers 206 00:21:23.740 --> 00:21:29.160 will be motivated to fire women and hire men in their place. 207 00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:36.480 If he is forced to pay men and women the same wages, even though they are not equally productive, 208 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:42.740 profits will be increased to the degree that male workers replace females. 209 00:21:42.740 --> 00:21:48.400 Employers who are inclined to take the feminist view and insist on keeping woman workers will 210 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:53.080 have decreased profits and lose their share of the market. 211 00:21:53.080 --> 00:21:58.600 The employers who prosper will be those who do not hire women. 212 00:21:58.600 --> 00:22:04.960 It should be stressed that the tendency for women who are truly equal to men in productivity 213 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:12.460 to receive equal wages exists only in the profit and loss free market. 214 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:19.080 Only in free enterprise are there financial incentives to hire highly productive underpriced 215 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:25.120 women to take advantage of their plight and thus to raise their wages. 216 00:22:25.120 --> 00:22:32.000 In the government and nonprofit sectors, these profit incentives are, by definition, absent. 217 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:38.280 It is hardly an accident, then, that virtually all real abuses of women in this respect take 218 00:22:38.280 --> 00:22:46.360 place in government and nonprofit areas such as schools, universities, libraries, foundations, 219 00:22:46.360 --> 00:22:49.560 social work and public services. 220 00:22:49.560 --> 00:22:55.140 There are few allegations of underpayment to women in private enterprise fields, such 221 00:22:55.140 --> 00:23:00.800 as computers, advertising or the media. 222 00:23:00.800 --> 00:23:05.480 Laws Compelling Non-Discrimination 223 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:12.760 McSorley's is a bar in New York City that catered exclusively to men until it was liberated. 224 00:23:12.760 --> 00:23:18.260 Under the banner of the new anti-discrimination law in New York State, women were served for 225 00:23:18.260 --> 00:23:21.760 the first time in the history of the establishment. 226 00:23:21.760 --> 00:23:26.980 This was hailed as a great progressive step forward by liberal, progressive and women's 227 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:29.300 liberation factions. 228 00:23:29.300 --> 00:23:34.980 The basic philosophy behind the law and the attendant liberation of McSorley's seems to 229 00:23:34.980 --> 00:23:40.820 be that it is illegitimate to discriminate between potential customers on the basis of 230 00:23:40.820 --> 00:23:42.340 sex. 231 00:23:42.340 --> 00:23:48.500 If the problems with this philosophy are not readily apparent, they can be made so by considering 232 00:23:48.500 --> 00:23:51.700 several reducciones ad absurdum. 233 00:23:51.700 --> 00:23:57.440 If the philosophy were strictly adhered to, for example, would not separate bathrooms 234 00:23:57.440 --> 00:24:02.400 for men at public places be considered discriminatory? 235 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:05.260 And separate residence halls for men? 236 00:24:05.260 --> 00:24:07.260 What about male homosexuals? 237 00:24:07.260 --> 00:24:11.060 They could be accused of discrimination against women. 238 00:24:11.060 --> 00:24:16.220 And aren't the women who marry men discriminating against other women? 239 00:24:16.220 --> 00:24:21.140 These examples, of course, are ridiculous, but they are consistent with the philosophy 240 00:24:21.140 --> 00:24:23.700 of anti-discrimination. 241 00:24:23.700 --> 00:24:29.380 If they are ridiculous, it is because that philosophy is ridiculous. 242 00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:36.220 It is important to realize that all human actions imply discrimination in the only sensible 243 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:43.280 The definition of that much abused term, picking and choosing from available alternatives, 244 00:24:43.280 --> 00:24:47.700 the one which best serves his or her interests. 245 00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:53.720 There is no action taken by human beings which fails to accord with this dictum. 246 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:59.260 We discriminate when we choose a toothpaste, decide upon a means of transportation, whom 247 00:24:59.260 --> 00:25:00.900 to marry. 248 00:25:00.900 --> 00:25:07.880 The discrimination practiced by the gourmet or wine taster is and can only be the discrimination 249 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:11.120 practiced by all human beings. 250 00:25:11.120 --> 00:25:17.320 Any attack upon discrimination, therefore, is an attempt to restrict the options open 251 00:25:17.320 --> 00:25:20.560 to all individuals. 252 00:25:20.560 --> 00:25:24.520 But what of the women's option to drink at McSorley's? 253 00:25:24.520 --> 00:25:27.560 Was their right to choose being violated? 254 00:25:27.560 --> 00:25:28.720 No. 255 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:35.080 What they experienced was what a man experiences when a woman rejects his sexual advances. 256 00:25:35.080 --> 00:25:41.000 The woman who refuses to date a man is not guilty of violating his rights, for his rights 257 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.500 do not include a relationship with her. 258 00:25:44.500 --> 00:25:50.600 That exists as a possibility, but not a right, unless she is his slave. 259 00:25:50.600 --> 00:25:55.920 In the same way, a man who wishes to drink in the company of other men is not guilty 260 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.480 of violating women's rights. 261 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.120 For women's rights do not include drinking with people who do not wish to drink with 262 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:04.360 them. 263 00:26:04.360 --> 00:26:08.920 It is only in a slave society that this is not so. 264 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:15.920 It is only in a slave society that the master can compel the slave to do his bidding. 265 00:26:15.920 --> 00:26:21.080 If the anti-discriminatory forces succeed in forcing their philosophy on the general 266 00:26:21.080 --> 00:26:27.940 public, they will also succeed in forcing on the public the cloven hoof of slavery. 267 00:26:27.940 --> 00:26:35.940 To the extent that the male chauvinist pig succeeds in resisting these trends, he must be looked upon as a hero.