Philosophy
Michael Moore had a short-lived television program call TV Nation. One of the bits he did was to address a social injustice. When someone has to visit the restroom at a movie theater, sex matters. Guys can go in, come right out, and miss virtually none of the film. Women, on the other hand, always face long lines to even get in the door. By the time a woman is done, she's missed a significant part of the movie she came to see just because she is a woman. That's unfair. So Michael Moore rented a flatbed truck and four super-nice port-a-pots colored pink and rolled up in front of theaters with a big sign that read "Johns of Justice" and had a bullhorn to announce to all the women inside that relief had arrived...in more ways than one...
The college did something similar recently. We have in various places on campus single user restrooms. They usually appear in pairs and until recently were divided half men's rooms and half ladies' rooms. This gave rise to the sort of unfairness that Michael Moore was concerned with. To address it, the college has left the women's facilities the same, but turned all of the men's rooms into unisex restrooms. So, there are now, no men's rooms.
Is this just? We often think that fairness requires equality, but does it? Distribution of scarce resources like this seem to turn of questions of equal access and in this case the question seems to be the length of wait or likelihood of availability. What we have is fair if the probability that someone will have to wait for a restroom, given that the person is male is equal to the probability that the person will have to wait for a restroom given that she is female. Is this the case?
That's an empirical question. Seems like we have another need for experimental philosophers...
- A Feminist Criticism Of The Republic.
Many of Plato?s ideas about women?s roles in society are extreme for his time. His reformist ideas push for equality between men and women in every role of society, from the military to the guardians. While this is a feminist argument, it is undermined...
- Is Socrates A Feminist?
Rebecca Bernstein October 13, 2005 Response To Book 5 Feminism revolves around true equality. True equality is the idea that every single element in the lives of men and women are equal. Feminism ignores genetic differences and their biological...
- Colorado Showdown On "transgenderism"
"Dispute on Transgender Rights Unfolds at a Colorado School" by Dan Frosch March 17th, 2013 The New York Times Coy Mathis was born a boy. But after just a few years, biology succumbed to a more powerful force. A buzz cut grew into long hair. Jeans gave...
- Genetic Mishap And Bathroom Privileges
Now the ethics and the well-being of a child will be up to the courts. Things just get more complicated. "Colorado parents of transgender 1st-grader file complaint over restroom ban" by Colleen O'Connor February 27th, 2013 The Denver Post The parents...
- Are Colleges/universities That Desperate?
Used to be..."For a good time, call 555-5555"."Colleges Are Selling Naming Rights to Restroom Stalls"byJosh SanburnFebruary 8th, 2012TimeImagine a restroom stall, or even an entire men’s room, on the campus of your alma mater being named in your honor....
Philosophy
Distributive Justice, Gendered Restrooms, and Experiemental Philosophy
Michael Moore had a short-lived television program call TV Nation. One of the bits he did was to address a social injustice. When someone has to visit the restroom at a movie theater, sex matters. Guys can go in, come right out, and miss virtually none of the film. Women, on the other hand, always face long lines to even get in the door. By the time a woman is done, she's missed a significant part of the movie she came to see just because she is a woman. That's unfair. So Michael Moore rented a flatbed truck and four super-nice port-a-pots colored pink and rolled up in front of theaters with a big sign that read "Johns of Justice" and had a bullhorn to announce to all the women inside that relief had arrived...in more ways than one...
The college did something similar recently. We have in various places on campus single user restrooms. They usually appear in pairs and until recently were divided half men's rooms and half ladies' rooms. This gave rise to the sort of unfairness that Michael Moore was concerned with. To address it, the college has left the women's facilities the same, but turned all of the men's rooms into unisex restrooms. So, there are now, no men's rooms.
Is this just? We often think that fairness requires equality, but does it? Distribution of scarce resources like this seem to turn of questions of equal access and in this case the question seems to be the length of wait or likelihood of availability. What we have is fair if the probability that someone will have to wait for a restroom, given that the person is male is equal to the probability that the person will have to wait for a restroom given that she is female. Is this the case?
That's an empirical question. Seems like we have another need for experimental philosophers...
- A Feminist Criticism Of The Republic.
Many of Plato?s ideas about women?s roles in society are extreme for his time. His reformist ideas push for equality between men and women in every role of society, from the military to the guardians. While this is a feminist argument, it is undermined...
- Is Socrates A Feminist?
Rebecca Bernstein October 13, 2005 Response To Book 5 Feminism revolves around true equality. True equality is the idea that every single element in the lives of men and women are equal. Feminism ignores genetic differences and their biological...
- Colorado Showdown On "transgenderism"
"Dispute on Transgender Rights Unfolds at a Colorado School" by Dan Frosch March 17th, 2013 The New York Times Coy Mathis was born a boy. But after just a few years, biology succumbed to a more powerful force. A buzz cut grew into long hair. Jeans gave...
- Genetic Mishap And Bathroom Privileges
Now the ethics and the well-being of a child will be up to the courts. Things just get more complicated. "Colorado parents of transgender 1st-grader file complaint over restroom ban" by Colleen O'Connor February 27th, 2013 The Denver Post The parents...
- Are Colleges/universities That Desperate?
Used to be..."For a good time, call 555-5555"."Colleges Are Selling Naming Rights to Restroom Stalls"byJosh SanburnFebruary 8th, 2012TimeImagine a restroom stall, or even an entire men’s room, on the campus of your alma mater being named in your honor....