Steven Hale
2 min readNov 24, 2019

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I think we agree (sexism is based on the view that one sex is inferior or superior to another) and disagree: women can see certain elements of sexism that men are not as likely to see, just as African-Americans are more able to see elements of racism that European-Americans tend to be oblivious to. (A century ago, W. E. B. DuBois pointed out that Blacks are aware of the Black experience AND the White experience, while Whites are normally aware only of the White experience.) This doesn’t mean women are superior, but that their experience is more inclusive (and ideally that their comments will reflect a valuable lesson that we would not get from the prototypical male perspective). Thus a panel of all women can see things that a panel of all men cannot. Again, this doesn’t mean that an all-female panel is inherently superior to any other panel (hypothetically, some of the members of the all-female panel may lack the broader perspective; certainly a specific individual like Laura Ingraham would be lacking— not because she is wrong [though I believe she is] but because she espouses the dominant male perspective and thus contributes nothing new or revelatory; and certain men may “get the point”). The notion that a mixed panel is more “equal” than an all women panel (I know this is not your argument, Chris) misses the point. The point is that an all-female panel of moderators will probably (but not inevitably) see certain truths about gender that an all-male panel or the male members of a mixed panel would likely not see.

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Steven Hale
Steven Hale

Written by Steven Hale

Music: Discovering the lost and forgotten. Politics: Exposing injustice. Screenwriting: Emotional storytelling.

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