Equal Rights?

Back in November of 1982 and still in 1984 I wrote essays arguing against the passage of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the spring of 1982. I had railed against it since Trudeau’s proposal of such a codification of rights first came out. After nearly thirty years of watching it in operation I still feel our tribes of lawyers have benefited more than our citizens from its application.

The critique of the document in my 1982 essay concerned the insistence on the equality clause of the Charter that so many outspoken feminists had insisted upon. Enforcement of that clause by the courts made it almost inevitable that individual rights to the strangest of behavioural quirks would be supported and sexual equality would result in legalization of same-sex marriage as now available in Canada. I felt then, before it had been tested by the courts, that such codified rights would do a disservice to both men and women. I argued that the image of women as subjugated people was misleading, that females of our species were generally stronger in nature (especially with physically active protective males), more aesthetically pleasing, smarter than men, longer living and likely responsible for whatever civilizing influence had persisted over the ages. I put the case that if the feminists were successful in drafting their gender into the competitive dog-eat-dog male world and gained dominance therein, they would rue the day and weaken their dominance. About all they could say then is “Well, it’s our turn!”

When I casually observe the effects of the Charter in those nearly thirty years, I must wonder how many in our population today, even those less inhibited than I by Depression Era standards, can say that relationships between the sexes or family life generally have improved because of this enforced Charter “equality”. Here are just a few noticeable trends that still offend my conservative sensibilities:

• Although women continue to complain that statistically they are paid less than men for doing the same work, the current recession points out the dominance of women in the workplace. Apparently Canada now has more employed women than men. If you watch television regularly the dominance of women in jobs once male dominated has become very noticeable, especially in the last decade or so, particularly on the CBC network. Except for fixtures like Peter Mansbridge, its chief news anchorman, almost all the on-screen faces one sees daily are women. Even the reporting foreign correspondents seem female dominated. The same phenomenon can be observed on the American PBS network and on CNN. Is it economics, or are the ladies simply smarter, better looking and better at the job than guys?
• In competing with men on the sexual activity front, one suspects a trend toward female dominance and male emasculation. Why else would North American males be spending millions of dollars on Viagra pills and their chemical competitors, now so freely advertised. The use of these sex enhancing drugs is increasing by leaps and bounds especially with the advent of new brands such as Cialis and Levitra. A recent report indicates some 5 million users in the States. Unlike some well published fundamentalist American women, I do not attribute the trend in weaker male productivity to a well-financed international enemy conspiracy but only to the everlasting search for affluence in our North American (and European) ever more liberal consumer society.
• The continuing push for equality in traditional male activities such as sports, logging, and the military does nothing to persuade me of an improvement in the feminine mystique. It is simply bringing such women down a peg to the violent and often reckless tendencies of men, and the sight of young women having achieved equality in the armed forces leaving small children behind to join the armed men deployed in Afghanistan still angers me.

I submit the battle of the sexes is an unnecessary engagement in confrontation. All we need is a mutual recognition of the individual humanity of every person, male and female or other. The Charter equality clause has not and will not bring that about. The constitutional mandate simply stresses a pre-existing inequality in our system of justice to no effect. It officially recognizes an end of the traditional grouping of women with men in our particular civilization. Though many would preserve that tradition, political and economic pressures that accompany this kind of feminism now force ever more women into competition not only with men, but with each other. Such “equality” bodes ill for women and for our civilization.

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