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But some of us are trying to talk about past views we've held...or views other women might have. And it seems like those views are so unacceptable and unreasonable to you, that their very existence makes you mad.
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Not mad. Baffled.
Why is the idea that I give people credit for the ability to think critically about the expectations others hold for them and to retain to good while rejecting the bad upsetting to you?
I'll freely admit that I don't believe that all beliefs have equal validity. I believe that there is such a thing as objective truth, that some sets of beliefs are closer to that truth than others, and that seeking said objective truth is why we are gifted with the ability to reason.
You accuse me of finding your beliefs unacceptable. Why do you consider my belief -- that the culture one grows up in is not a set of chains but rather something that each, individual person should evaluate and choose to accept, reject, or modify as a natural and normal part of leaving childhood and entering adulthood -- unacceptable?
I came out of lurkdom to present my views because I found them unrepresented on this thread -- which seemed to me to be heavy on the bemoaning of culture and light on the idea that culture is not the be-all and end-all of existence.
If the goal is to "reach" people then, perhaps, one way of doing so would be through encouraging people to think critically about the assumptions they grew up with and, in answer to the objections about self-defense in general and firearms in particular, to offer up the fine examples of womanhood that I have previously mentioned as role models.
