Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...that men and women played equal roles. From her research Mead concluded that in the case of gender roles, the nature versus nurture question could be answered. Her research showed that it was not possible for gender roles to be a natural occurrence. Sociologists take the view that it must be socialisation that influences the way a person develops to be masculine or feminine. There are a number of different ways that a person can be influenced including family influences, especially as a child. Children in Western societies are brought up to have masculine views and characteristics by their parents if they are boys because that it what is traditional. A boy will look at his father as a role model and will learn to act like him. This is also the case with young girls who will look to their mothers for advice, taking into account her social... Read review

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Advantages: None... No quotas, preferences, set-asides, etc., based on race, religion, color or gender.
Disadvantages: ...and handicaps should be considered on a case-by-case; not a race-by-race basis.

...BOTTOM LINE: --Though I Recognize And Treat You As My Equal, My Government's Policies Make It Embarrassingly Apparent That It Does Not. Racial/Gender Preferences Weaken And Divide. Crying-towels Make Lousy Flying Carpets. = THE QUESTION: "WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO COMBAT RACISM?" THE SHORT ANSWER: 1) Eliminate government policies like quotas and preferences that focus on "kinds" of people, rather than simply on people. 2) Eliminate "Political Correctness." Substitute in "honesty." 3) Pursuant to item #2, the government and the media should be forced to reveal themselves as the divisive forces behind the destructive stereotyping and victimism that has contributed to making racism a lingering problem. As a visible and loathesome common enemy, they would provide... Read review

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Advantages: Equality is good....
Disadvantages: ....but superiority is bad

...no issue with this whatsoever – judge a person on his/her abilities, experience and attitude. It shouldn’t matter whether they are male, female, gay , straight, black or white – every one of us should have an equal footing. Has feminism really revolutionised the world for women though – or has it simply created a society of enforced values, where people do what they think they should be seen to be doing and secretly think something else? Positive discrimination has become as big a problem in the work place as sexual discrimination once was. Companies and employers are now monitored on the percentage of females that they employ, actively encouraging women into senior positions and celebrating the success of female employees, simply because of their gender. In many ways, the work place seems just as discriminative to me... Read review

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Advantages: Great entertainment and action
Disadvantages: A little unrealistic at times...!

...Creators: Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim Producers: (various, including…) Edward Alder, Alan Barnette, Gail Morgan Hickman and Ed Waters. Directors: (various, including…) Donald Petrie, Alan Metzger, Richard Compton and Luis Soto. Stars: Edward Woodward, Robert Lansing, Keith Szarabajka, William Zabra, Robert Joy, Richard Jordan and Luis Guzman Originally released in September of 1985, running until 1989, creating 88 one hour episodes split into four seasons. * The DVD Box set Season one was released in Britain in April 2008, creating a box set of 6 DVDs giving over 16 hours of dramatic encounters with the charismatic English man in the Black 1984 Jaguar XJ6 3 series car… ** BRIEF IDEA ** "Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the equalizer…" Robert McCall, (played by Edward Woodward) is an ex secret... Read review

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Advantages: Men aren't always dominant over women
Disadvantages: Unfortunately as this research shows they are in our society

...As some of you may or may not know I study English language and until recently I had little interest in it. I have just written this essay on Language and gender and exploring if men are more dominant in conversation. Have a read and you might find it interesting or might think I’m the most boring person ever. As usual all comments are more than welcome. This is the essay title: ‘Interest in the way women and men talk has grown astronomically since the mid 1970’s, and sociolinguistic research carried out in many different cultures means we know far more than we did about the ways in which women and men interact and about the ways their patterns of talk differ. We also know that in all known societies it is the way men speak that is held in high esteem, while women’s ways of talking are compared unfavourably... Read review

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Advantages: Funny, light reading...
Disadvantages: ... lacks the brilliance of later Discworld books.

...Equal Rites is the third in the Discworld series of books. At the beginning an old wizard, who knows he has only a few minutes to live, journeys to a remote village with a silly name in order to pass on his staff to a deserving recipient. He knows that an eighth son of an eighth son has been born, and these are traditionally sorcerers. Off he goes then, looked at with interest by the many goats in the region, and the blacksmith's cat. He tells the blacksmith that his eighth son, just born, will become a wizard and passes on his staff to him, and promptly dies. All is right with the world. Except… the eighth son isn't actually a son at all. She's a daughter, and everyone knows that women can't become wizards. Witches yes, but wizards? Of course not. Everyone knows this. Everyone except the highly magical staff, that is… Thus... Read review

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Advantages: The writing, the setting, the music
Disadvantages: The characters are not sow ell defined or likable

...I bought this book, An Equal Music by Vikram Seth, for the grand sum of one penny on the basis of a review written by Floon. I was enchanted by his description of the storyline and the author’s writing style. I was not disappointed. The author, Vikram Seth states, in an author’s note located on the last page of the book, that, “Music to me is dearer even than speech”. To convey this, he focuses his novel on the world of music and its performance. The central character, Michael Holme, is the second violinist in a London-based string quartet. His life has settled somewhat into a rut. He plays his violin; teaches the violin; makes love to one of his students, Virginie; rings his father; all as a matter of routine. His comfortable lifestyle is suddenly disturbed by a series of events each connected and occurring in parallel... Read review

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Advantages: Immense...
Disadvantages: None whatsoever

..., that proper excavation of them becomes almost impossible, or at the very least, extremely difficult and painful. These boys will turn out to be "real men", their own body being the coffin of their own feelings, which will take much more than Jesus to resuscitate. ******************************************* The Seven Steps to Manhood that the book refers to are the following, according to the author: 1- Fixing it with your father 2- Finding sacredness in your sexuality 3- Meeting your partner on equal terms 4- Engaging actively with your kids 5- Learning to have real male friends 6- Finding your heart in your work 7- Freeing your wild spirit These seem quite self explanatory, and in fact, the subsequent chapters are thorough developments of each of the above points. ******************************************* A huge... Read review

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Advantages: Puns,you can feel Pratchett enjoyed writing it
Disadvantages: I kinda missed Nanny Ogg and Magrat

...that is present in our world, just explained away as psychology. This book isn't necessarily all about Women wining the right to be equal with men, no it is more about the two different sexes coming together and complimenting each other, using their different strengths and talents together to make a better world. I personally think this is a very important message. We shouldn't be trying to make androgynous people who are neither sex, but rather we should be glorying in the differences of gender and using them equally to all our advantages. Pratchett is still having fun with the Discworld at this point, some of his later books like "the truth" seem to have a forced feel to them, but you can feel the joy in this one, he enjoyed writing it and it shows in the sparkling, witty narration: "Granny meanwhile was two streets away. She was also... Read review

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Advantages: good characters, interesting
Disadvantages: not as good as some of his other novels

...My Pratchett phase continues. The latest book I’ve finished is Equal Rites – the third Discworld novel and the first foray into the chronicles of the Witches. Perhaps unfortunately for me, I read Carpe Jugulum beforehand – a Pratchett book which is brilliant in every way – so Equal Rites had a lot to live up to and just didn’t manage it in my opinion. The story is about a young girl called Esk (short for Eskarina). She is a wizard. Well, kind of. She possesses special wizard powers and even owns a wizard’s staff. There’s just one slight problem, one slight six-legged insect in the ointment of Eye of Bat – her gender. Yes, Esk is a girlie. Girls with magical powers are witches. The Unseen University - home of wizardry on the Discworld – promotes equality in the same way... Read review

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