Okay, there's a lot to get through here. People have asked me for responses to some issues, quoted me et cetera, and I'm sorry if my replies feel slow; I really struggle to put thoughts into words so I've spent a while taking stuff in and just trying to work out how to respond. I'm gonna do my best but bare with me if I can't adequately answer everyone's issues straight off the bat.
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Oh, they are completely equal in the Western world. This is why feminists annoy me, because they get up in arms about the tiniest shit when women over in Islamic countries are actually oppressed, living in a legitimate rape culture and patriarchy. They don't seem to care about that. In fact, they defend it, saying that it's their culture and that we should "respect it". That's fucking stupid.
I didn't respond to your original post because it's just the same old shit I've heard before and it gets tiring. Varrok actually made a pretty good rebuttal though and you failed to respond to it. How come?
Let's have a more interesting debate. Name one straight up oppression women face in the West and we'll talk about that.
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I'm a firm believer in statistics first, empirical evidence second, conjecture last. I see your dismissive statement that basically boils down to, "there is perfect gender equality in the western world," and it frustrates me. Not because of the sentiment, but because there is so much evidence to the contrary that you're being almost willfully naive. You cannot make a statement without proof to back it up.
There are still significant hurdles for women and intersex to jump over before we reach a degree of socio-economic parity.
It is often all to easy to dismiss "1st world" problems under the pretenses that someone somewhere has it worse. Why worry about a pay gap in France when women in Burkina Faso are dealing with horrific FGM? It is important that feminism remains an international movement, but we cannot export western feminism to these places because it would not adequately solve or target the problems women in less developed nations face. We can provide teaching, literature and methods to help feminist movements in nations such as Iran, Pakistan and Nigeria, however we cannot fight their battles for them. Moreover, women in these nations do not want us to do so, because if we did it would take their empowerment away.
So let me address specifically western gender inequality for now.
There is still a massive gender pay gap that varies across the Occident; the ONS has shown that the mean pay gap in the UK is 9.4%. In Croatia, the number is around 34%. To put that into perspective, if you are a man earning 10 euros/hr in Rijeka, your female counterpart will be making 6.60 euros/hr. I am fortunate in that I live in the UK, where the pay gap is shrinking, and the feminist movement is continuing to pressure businesses to make sure that we reach parity in the near future. A lot of pay gap differences in the UK--I feel--are hangovers of old attitudes towards a woman's "role" in society; something that has faded significantly after the 90s, as new generations are brought up to view one another as equal.
In regards to your comment about Islam; I personally believe that the issue is incredibly complex, and a lot of liberals have this sort of quantum theoretical crisis where they simultaneously call people who disagree with the tenets of Islam as racist, whilst decrying the treatment of women. This is why liberals are shitty. I believe Islam is a disgusting religion, as are most religions, however I believe that Muslims themselves do not necessarily have to be shitty people, obviously. Nevertheless, there are fundamental issues with Islam that many moderates hold, such as that same-sex marriage is wrong (I believe about 34% of Muslims in the UK believe this, according to a Channel 4 poll, which is much higher than the national average). We can fix this through comprehensive education, and over time immigrant Muslims will naturally convert to the social conventions of more acceptance. As it stands, I believe Islam is a fundamental evil of society, but there is an obvious distinction to be made between its teachings and its followers.
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Fucking. This.
People like Anita Sarkeesian need that statement printed on their fucking head. Going after how females are represented in video games; The smallest non-issue in the first world and making out it's the biggest crisis facing woman everywhere. All the while, Ignoring actual problems woman face in other countries that DO actually need help.
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Sexual harassment and a pay-gap higher than almost any other industry are not small non-issues. I'm surprised you'd bring up gaming industry specific examples considering it's one of the most toxic hobbies for a woman. A lot of that is down to a sheer lack of accountability, and I think perhaps men not wanting to share a space that has traditionally been a hold out for masculinity in the past.
I mean, even from personal experience; the amount of times I've had letchy comments from gross dweebs both online and offline is disgusting, and when you add in the fact that these people often don't know how to deal with rejection, there is a very real threat of physical violence or just the most awful harassment. If you are conventionally attractive woman 'gamer', you have to run a gauntlet, be that at gamer expos or just dealing with online gamers who know what you look like. I have female gamer friends who just pretend to be men online so as not to deal with the disgusting shit that spews like fountains from the mouths of these sweaty manlets.
Anyway, I will reply to Moxco's, UTS' and Varrok's posts in more detail after work, but damn guys, I'm surprised at the amount of sheer willful ignorance in the face of fairly insurmountable statistical and quantifiable gender discrimination.