Sample these News clips just from the last couple of week:
- The Equal Opportunities Commission in Hong Kong hopes to undertake a study that will "systematically identify the discrimination, harassment and vilification that sexual minorities encounter in the course of their education, employment and social interactions on a daily basis".
- In Pennsylvania, Officer Melissa Gogel was paid $20,000 as settlement for her sex discrimination case against the city for "being denied a promotion", "changing her work schedule", "not being allowed to take a government vehicle home".
- Films are going through "Bechdel Test" to tackle female representation - how many female characters are there? how many are developed beyond being an attachment to the male hero?
- When someone asked why Dunham’s character in the HBO series, Girls, is seen walking around naked a lot, often when there was no particular reason the story requires it, the question was termed as "sexist" and "misogynistic".
- Newly inaugurated Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has signed an executive order prohibiting state discrimination based on race, gender, age, sexual orientation or political affiliation.
Artwork in an Ashford coffee shop was removed following complaints that it is ‘sexist’. The print shows three men leaning against a wall staring at a woman as she walks down an alleyway.
Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence journal has been criticised for showing a broom-wielding
female robot on its cover. Sputniko, a Japanese artist, described the image as "a gynoid robot with
hollow eyes" which showed a lack of sensitivity to gender equality.
In India, Maharashtra State Women’s Commission has issued a notice to comedian Kapil Sharma after he cracked a joke about a pregnant woman delivering a baby during commuting on pothole-filled roads. The joke was considered derogatory and insulting by women groups.
Each passing day, the voice against sexual discrimination or discrimination in general is gaining decibels. All "progressive" people are vehemently supporting this global cause while anything that even borders on being discriminatory is considered regressive, is put under scrutiny, and even penalized. The news clippets stated above are just a tip of the iceberg as almost all across the world, in each and every country, while the levels may vary yet this revolution is gaining ground everywhere. Even in Saudi Arabia which is one of the most regressive society, women have started vocalizing (and one even acted) against the law that bans women drivers.
Over the last century or so, inequity has been subdued all across - Following the civil war in 1860, the then American President, Abraham Lincoln, introduced the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865 that formally outlawed the institution of (black) slavery throughout the United States (Oh my! did I just make a discriminatory remark by writing 'black'?); Mahatma Gandhi vehemently expressed his angst against prejudice based on caste system in India primarily based on division of labour and wealth that resulted in the dramatic change in the society's behaviour in general.
This is all good... very good...
So far...
Hang on... what do I mean by "So far..."?? Well, sooner or later, all forms of discrimination will vanish - race, colour, creed, religion, origin, ethnicity, age, caste, sex, shape, size, height, physical, mental, sexual orientation, wealth... you name it - and this world will be one nice place to live in.
Right? (A smile flickers on your lips as you now realize where this is headed)
Maybe... Or Maybe Not
In the future, since there will be no sexual discrimination, words like "man" and "woman" would be erased as they are discriminatory and everyone will be called "humanoid". "He" & "She" will be replaced by "it" (back to being an animal), "Husband" & "Wife" by "Partner". Everyone will wear all kinds of clothes as only women wearing skirts/sarees etc is highly discriminating. Since there will be no race/colour discrimination, "black", "white" & "brown" would get removed from the spectrum. Since there would be no prejudice against sexual orientation, words like straight/gay/lesbian will not exist anymore. Everyone, without any consideration to their height, weight or physical and mental limitations will be considered for all jobs and positions. Since a name today communicate the ethnicity/origin of an individual, everyone will have randomly generated codes as names. All languages would be merged to create one global language to prevent any mindsets defined by an individual's language. All relative & comparative terminology will be expunged like right-left, tall-short, fast-slow etc. All exams/competitions will no longer exist as they create a ranking system creating a divide between smart & stupid which will totally violate the law against discrimination.
With the above in mind, let's visualize the world without any form of discrimination and check out how it will look and feel. (I will be using some terminologies used in the present world to help you visualize better)
A humanoid (let's call it HZR362) gets up in the morning, hurriedly shaves (this is to let you know that it is the specie erstwhile called man), shampoos its long flowing hair, wears a double breasted blazer matching with a pleated skirt and six inch stilettoes, bids goodbye to its partner and two children and rushes to the elevator (the buttons of which are on a long touch screen so as to let a humanoid of any height press them), wishes the security guard who is a slim, petite, 45 kg humanoid (sexy blonde babe) and waves for a taxi. The leg space is cramped as the driver has pushed its own seat all the way back (she is fat). The driver coughs & sneezes throughout but HZR362 cannot use a mask as it will be a criminal offense to discriminate against a medical condition.
HZR362 works with an advertising agency as a creative director. It's team has HPW298, DRP908, RTK259 (Obviously, one cannot mention anything that differentiates the three. In fact, one is a drug-addict Caucasian woman, another high school flunked Indian with unknown gender, and the third a dumb-witted Chinese). HZR362 and its team finds it difficult to even understand each other as they all come from different backgrounds, beliefs and idiosyncrasies but there is nothing that it can do as the team members are selected randomly by a hi-tech computer that identifies humanoids from across the globe based on a highly advanced computer program (called ZDA or Zero Discrimination Algorithm) that removes all discriminatory parameters (which basically implies a total random pull from world population).
HZR362 is trying to create an advertising for a company that makes soaps. The model that has been shortlisted (again by ZDA) is TYR327 (who has a patchy & rough skin, has chimpanzee like lips and is ugly by every historic definition). HZR362 also has to plan for a fashion show that has a one-legged octogenarian French milk-humanoid, a three and a half feet African business-humanoid, a six feet flat chested thunder-thighs Filipino something as ramp models.
In this non-discriminatory world, no stereotypes exist and anyone can be anything and do anything. A man could wear skirts, sarees, high heels, will carry hand bags, have long hair, spend hours in beauty parlours (hey, maybe beauty parlours will be against the law as it discriminates against ugliness) while a woman will have road fights, use cuss words in each sentence, do manually demanding work, build muscles, strut topless. Anyone will marry anyone whether it is a man, woman, or anyone else. Wonder who would be called a Father or Mother? Maybe just "Parent"... "Hey Parent HZR362, can you please get me an apple?". Athletics/Sports will not have separate competition of men & women and anyone can play in each contest. Team sports like cricket, football will have players from all gender and different capabilities playing together. Movies will have equal number of all types and variety of humanoids.
You get the point. How much fun such world would be!!!
If we were supposed to be equal, I am sure nature (or God, whatever you believe in) would not have made us all different. We would have been all identical in all aspect - shape, size, looks, height, weight, gender - everything. Heck, why create so many specie at all? We would all have been capable of producing babies. We would all have been bestowed with equal strength and brains.
The fact is, we aren't.
Prevention of discrimination is a must but that should not lead to a stage where we lose the entire fun of being different from each other. This world will be a very boring place if everyone was identical in all aspects, if there were only one colour, one specie, one language. In fact, the only thing we need to learn is to understand and respect the differences and just prevent ourselves from taking advantage of anyone else's shortcoming or one own selves strengths.
Let the world be a fun place full of DISCRIMINATION. The meaning from the Latin origin of the word "discrimination" is DISTINGUISHING (which means to set oneself apart)
Let's live in The World of Distinguishing Gentlemen... or should it be Gentlewomen... or maybe Gentle-Humanoid... Shucks!!!
If not, the news from the future will be like this:
Officer Mel Gogel was paid $20,000 as settlement for his sex discrimination case against the city for "being denied a promotion", "changing his work schedule", "not being allowed to take a government vehicle home".
- Films are going through "Bechdel Test" to tackle Male representation - how many male characters are there? how many are developed beyond being an attachment to the female hero?
- When someone asked why Dunham’s character in the HBO series, Boys, is seen walking around naked a lot, often when there was no particular reason the story requires it, the question was termed as "sexist" and "misogynistic".
Artwork in an Ashford coffee shop was removed following complaints that it is ‘sexist’. The print shows three women leaning against a wall staring at a man as he walks down an alleyway.
Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence journal has been criticised for showing a broom-wielding male robot on its cover.
And I will have to write this all over again...
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