It's Acceptable, Because It's Politically Correct

I have entered my book into a women's only literary competition. I am quite excited about being able to enter, and I hope I win. It is a fabulous literary competition! Yet, what would people say if an organisation created a men's only literary competition? Maybe these competitions exist, I am not sure, but I suspect a grouping into men's only entrants would only be tolerated in youth categories. If a women's only competition is allowed, surely a men's only competition is perfectly acceptable too? I am sure if someone created an adult men's only competition, there would be an outcry that this represented chauvinism.

I realise the reason for having a women's only competition is because women have historically been at a disadvantage to men, but when does the switchover to inclusivity happen? When are women empowered enough? And what happens if women's only competitions become competitions which continue to exclude men into the future and men become disenfranchised someday--is this possible? When do we stop seeing the gender, and instead see the value of each book, regardless of who wrote it? If ten men take the first ten places in a writing competition, and only twenty people entered, were the ten women disempowered, or did the women write less artistic books? Must there be a distribution according to demographics of who entered? If we think so, why should we think so?

This same principle applies to other facets of society, along ethnic and cultural lines for example. When do we stop seeing the category of person, and start to see only the person? When does the empowerment of one group become the exclusion of another group, which leads to the very discrimination one wanted to avoid initially?

Link to related blog article: Why IS Miss South Africa White?