Freedom and Equality
- Ondy Ho
- Feb 17, 2019
- 3 min read
"What is freedom?"
This is a question to my young students who replied,
"to do whatever I want"
"to have no rules"
"to keep running" (....?)
It's obvious that they've taken the word "freedom" literally but not the true meaning. They're mere children; we don't expect they come up with anything else other than such. However, it has brought to my attention that these children actually hold relatively the same idea as many of us adults. So allow me to ask you this,
What is freedom?
We are all born equal; we are never meant to be the same. All life is life; the value of human life isn't worth more than that of insects, animals, or plants. We could do more things than other species but we do not possess more value. This is my view of life. But this time, we'll only talk about gender equality.
Men and women were created equally at the beginning, treated differently in the past and now share the same rights in more and more countries. In Taiwan, I believe we are now.
"Hold on a second. Did you just say that men and women have equal rights in Taiwan?"
"Yes."
Women make less money working at the same jobs.
Women do not get promoted as fast/easy as men.
Women have to take care of children as well as work to make a living.
The list could go on but really I couldn't think of any more for simply two reasons. First, we do not have, if at all, inequality between genders on a systemic basis. Second, our society has reached a point where equality between genders has become the norm and only individual cases need to be reported. We can all receive education, go to work, vote and participate in any civil events or run an election. Why, then, have there been feminists still? (Seriously, I need someone to answer this one.) They really need to put their efforts at places/countries where gender inequality occurs.
The ideology of feminism has spread and reached many of us. However, in a time where people have won the battle, the idea remains. As a result, contemporary feminism is created. The new feminism focuses on spreading the idea that "whatever better men have, we want it, too!". If men make more money working, women should be given "the same opportunity". I don't believe that gender can play a role here, only qualification. Since we already live in a democratic country in this era (when equal rights have been fought for), one who wishes to have more, simply needs self-betterment, not privilege. Feminism doesn't mean picking "male privileges" but instead, root them out so there aren't any.
Everyone, under the law, has the freedom to pursue happiness, a career or a personal goal. Actually, we haven't won the battle of homosexual rights but that's not gender right, rather than human right. What we have in Taiwan and countries who are much like us is that the system has long been ready for the people to grow into. The right laws have been established but our beliefs have not yet all changed. Things such as "men should pay for certain things" or "women's job is to have babies" are still ongoing. This doesn't mean that men and women are not equal in Taiwan though. It just means that because we have such freedom to even talk about it. There are stereotypical "societal customs" but we have the freedom to change them if willingly.
Freedom is to give one another freedom, to act, to respond, to choose and to love.
Freedom is to receive the outcomes of one another's freedom and to respect them.
Freedom is to make the simple but difficult decisions, to love and be loved.
It is truly precious and easily neglected. It has the equivalent importance and necessity of oxygen as we don't know until we no longer have it.
Modern day "free humans" exploited this right into thinking that everything is of their freedom to act on. Freedom doesn't mean without boundary; it, in fact, means complete self- discipline.
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