{"id":1570,"date":"2012-12-14T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T18:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mixhart.ca\/blog\/?p=1570"},"modified":"2012-12-14T15:34:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-14T23:34:34","slug":"the-cure-for-sexism-is-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/the-cure-for-sexism-is-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cure For Sexism is Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m writing a few freelance articles on the subject of the objectification of women and girls–the dehumanization which leads to violence.<\/p>\n

As I write, I discover more pieces to a puzzle that has plagued me since I was old enough to understand I am female.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> We, as members of a patriarchal society, get that women are dehumanized into sexual body parts. But the why has been missing. Why has it always been women?<\/p>\n

Through my own research, I now understand the essence of the dehumanization of women (misogyny).<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is lack of empathy for the female human form. Empathy\u00a0is what divides the women from the men.<\/strong> I believe motherhood prepares a woman’s brain for empathy. We naturally have a flood of chemicals that set us up for this: oxytocin. A recent study in the Globe and Mail<\/a>, suggests that fathers receiving oxytocin demonstrate much more attentive, empathetic treatment of their children.<\/p>\n

Thus, throughout history, women have a natural boost to developing empathy for other humans. This does not get men off the hook; rather, they must view themselves as eager students and look to the women of our society as leaders in empathy. Women are our esteemed teachers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> The route of empathy must be taught. Our mothers and fathers teach us how to view women. Do we view them as sexual objects or human beings?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When an empathetic woman views men, even the most sexually attractive men, she sees beyond the sexual body parts.<\/p>\n

She sees a human being first, someone’s son, brother, father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Dehumanizing a human hurts an empathetic person. So empathetic people don’t do it.<\/p>\n

Some men have been taught empathy for all humans. These men don’t objectify women into sexual body parts. And in a paradox, some men don’t objectify the women in their life; they’ve been taught selective<\/em> empathy (for mothers, sisters) yet, they continue to objectify other women.<\/p>\n

What needs to\u00a0be taught is non-selective empathy. Empathy for the entire human race<\/strong>.<\/h3>\n

If children are taught empathy for all women by their parents and important adult figures in their lives (teachers), violence against women and girls will significantly decrease, perhaps cease.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
All phototgraphs in this post by Mix Hart, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Popular culture convinces us female dehumanization is the acceptable norm<\/strong>.\u00a0Because our entire culture is set up to publicly objectify women, it is difficult to even know when one is doing it themselves.<\/p>\n

But every time you forget that there’s a human being attached to those body parts<\/strong> (someone’s daughter, sister, mother), all the little boys and girls in your life take note;<\/strong>\u00a0they learn it’s okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m writing a few freelance articles on the subject of the objectification of women and girls–the dehumanization which leads to violence. As I write, I discover more pieces to a puzzle that has plagued me since I was old enough … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[1388,3113,118,1389,1019,724,1277],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism","tag-empathy","tag-feminism","tag-mindfulness-training","tag-misogyny","tag-sexism","tag-womanhood","tag-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":60,"label":"Feminism"}],"post_tag":[{"value":1388,"label":"Empathy"},{"value":3113,"label":"Feminism"},{"value":118,"label":"mindfulness training"},{"value":1389,"label":"misogyny"},{"value":1019,"label":"sexism"},{"value":724,"label":"womanhood"},{"value":1277,"label":"Women"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mixhart","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/author\/mixhart\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":60,"name":"Feminism","slug":"feminism","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":60,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":66,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":60,"category_count":66,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Feminism","category_nicename":"feminism","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":1388,"name":"Empathy","slug":"empathy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1404,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":3113,"name":"Feminism","slug":"feminism","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1356,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":10,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":118,"name":"mindfulness training","slug":"mindfulness-training","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1385,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1389,"name":"misogyny","slug":"misogyny","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1406,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1019,"name":"sexism","slug":"sexism","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1405,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":724,"name":"womanhood","slug":"womanhood","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1524,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1277,"name":"Women","slug":"women","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1277,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mixhart.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}