Differences Don’t Necessarily Equal Discrimination

Via Susan

 

Well, another Equal Pay Day has come and gone. This year it came on April 8th to represent how long into 2014 a woman would have to work to make what a man did in 2013. The highlight this year was when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to explain away the pay gap between men and women in the White House by saying that when men and women hold similar positions, they are paid the same. And while the federally commissioned CONSAD report from a few years back found virtually the same thing nationwide, the Obama administration still pushed forward its executive order to end the gender wage gap.

This is nothing new of course. Equal Pay Day and other things of that sort have always required a large degree of cognitive dissonance. Back in 2012, the adult actress Sasha Grey made a PSA (a very explicit one at that) for the Belgium version of Equal Pay Day saying “porn is about the only way to make more than men.” In its analysis of the PSA Jezebel accuses the ad of sending “mixed messages.”[1] The first mixed message one might wonder about is why, if women are discriminated against, is such discrimination not relatively uniform? After all, not only do adult actresses make more than their male colleagues, but the same goes for models. Indeed, in 2013, the top ten male models made only about one tenth of what the top ten female models made. Why is this?

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