Many people seem to forget that feminism is not aimed at denying the physiological differences between men and women. Nobody in their right mind can argue that male and female bodies are the same. It’s the social, economic, legal and political inequalities that feminism addresses and combats. Recognizing that, to give an example, women menstruate and men don’t is not sexist. It just recognizes a fact of objective reality.
The reason why I just gave this little explanation on what feminism actually does is the following post which bandies about the word “sexism” without any understanding what sexism entails:
I wrote about Flores-Villar v. United States last year. The Times summarizes the state of the law in 1974, when Ruben Flores-Villar was born: “Children born outside the country to an unmarried American parent are considered American citizens at birth if the parent lived in the United States before the child was born. For a mother, the required period of residence is one year. For a father, it is 10 years, five of them after he turns 14. Fathers must also prove parenthood and pledge to support the child.”
The case involves Ruben Flores-Villar, whose father — but not mother — is an American. Ruben was born in Mexico and moved to the US when he was two months old. Ruben has been declared an “illegal immigrant” and deported to Mexico. Ruben’s father was sixteen years old when Ruben was born, and so the “five of them after he turns 14″ provision of the law was impossible to meet.
(It’s important to note that immigration law was altered in the 1980s; the current law is still sexist and should be fixed, but the discrepancy is not as large as it was when Ruben was born.)
The reason why there is such a difference in how mothers and father are treated under this law is obvious. It’s the same reason why women who donate eggs get paid huge sums of money while men who donate sperm get nothing. Contributing sperm versus contributing an egg + carrying the fetus to term + giving birth to the baby while putting your own health and sometimes life at risk are not equal. They are unequal not because society is sexist but because nature made it so.
Sexist societies always deny the value of fatherhood. They present everything that has to do with child-rearing as an exclusively female area of interest and expertise. Mass media present men as inept fathers who are always in need of being guided by women to whom parenting skills come “naturally.” This sexist system ends up hurting everybody.
The above-mentioned law is not about fatherhood, however. It’s obviously aimed at avoiding the creation of a black market which will be inundated with sperm for sale the second these restrictions are lowered.
Clarissa's Blog 
In a sexist point of view, I agree with you. But in a citizenship-immigration point of view, this law sucks!
So…If fathers doesn’t have the same rights than mothers (I agree with that),
fathers should not have the same responsibilities for the same reason.
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In terms of giving birth, they don’t. Is any father required to carry a child to term and push it out in a way that shreds his sex organs? That responsibility belongs exclusively to a woman.
I hope cloning will change this soon, though.
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No, but I talk about legal responsibilities.
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And I don’t. 🙂 As you can see from the title of the post, it is dedicated exclusively to conception and giving birth.
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I know, but I think your point of view can be generalized.
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My man, do NOT generalize. The concepts is generalizing or stereotyping are not appreciated here (I’d say borderline vilified). Even though neither have to do with prejudice. I could be wrong though 🙂
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The word you are looking for is “ridiculed.”
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The thing is, the residence requirement has even nothing to do with establishing a parent-child relationship. Only the legitimation requirement is. So yes, the law is SEXIST because such requirement does not prove of lineage and father-child relationship at all. Just as proven by the Flores-Villar case.
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”The case involves Ruben Flores-Villar, whose father — but not mother — is an American. Ruben was born in Mexico in 1974 and moved to the US when he was two months old. He was declared an “illegal immigrant” and deported from the US in 2006, after being convicted of marijuana possession”
Deported at least 21 YEARS LATER for a non-crime! This is unacceptable!
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That I agree with completely. As an immigrant, I know full well how these endless threats of deportation are used against people. It is irredeemably wrong.
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And Jose Vargas, there illegal immigrant from the Philippines, according to the INS will not be deported despite false claim to citizenship and forgery of documents.
Amazing, isn’t it? False claim to US citizenship is a Federal crime.
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