Editor,
The following is my response prompted by controversy regarding the centerspread “The Gender Wage Gap” in the September 15th edition of the Aragon Outlook.
Students at Aragon High School are overwhelmingly liberal. No one will dispute this and I, as a principled conservative, have no problem with this. I live on the ‘left coast’ and should expect no less from the Bay Area. Generally, myself and the few other conservatives at Aragon will withhold our views in the interest of staying neutral and avoiding conflict. However, as the 2016 election has spun up into a frenzy of debate and emotion, I feel that it is time I ought to be more vocal about my beliefs. If somebody is offended by my support of Donald Trump, or is ‘triggered’ by my views, then I do not wish to engage in a conversation with them. But I write this letter because I know there are students at Aragon who want to have reasonable and civil debate.
The infamous gender wage gap is certainly a hot issue for many. Such to the extent that I’ve been called ‘sexist’ for simply disagreeing. I have no doubt that there is a wage gap in a select few instances. To what extent, I do not know. But I absolutely deny any existence of a culturally motivated or systematically promoted wage gap. As an example, the centerspread detailed how in the WNBA, the highest paid woman made a maximum salary of $109,500. In my research, I found that the highest paid NBA player (LeBron James), makes a whopping $30,963,450. Upon seeing this, anyone would be shocked. Clearly, the females are being discriminated against! Quick, grab the pitchforks! Let’s take a moment and look at the difference in revenue between the NBA and WNBA. The NBA brought in more than $5 billion in profits last season. The WNBA, on the other hand, barely made any profit, according to Newsweek.com. Could the issue here not be a severe difference in the profits, viewership, and ratings of the different leagues, rather than systematic sexism? Is it intellectually honest to call someone ‘sexist’ because they find men’s basketball more entertaining than women’s? Now, this is obviously only one example, and there certainly could be other reasonable explanations. However, I wish the Outlook would be more considerate to representing the opposing arguments in highly controversial issues such as this.
Since the burden of proof is on me for my claims, let me provide another rebuttal. A graph was shown in the center of the article showing the pay gap for various professions. The highest disparities were in the farming, fishing, and forestry industry, and the installation and repair industry. Without getting into heavy statistics and research, I think it would be a fair assumption to state that both of those industries are centered around physical labor and have been dominated by males for as long as they have existed. As far as farming, fishing, and forestry goes, that is an industry that is outdoors and requires heavy lifting, hard labor and use of heavy machinery. While there are certainly women who are built for such jobs and love the outdoors, generally speaking (and this is not sexist, its scientifically supported statistics), women are not physically able to exert as much torque as men. In an industry that requires physical labor, a male will statistically perform better and therefore be more valuable to an employer. The same principle goes for installation and repair.
I absolutely appreciate the compassion and attention that liberals typically view issues with, although I also often feel that an unrealistic approach and exigence can be given to issues that are completely natural and explainable. Men and women should be treated as equals – plain and simple. In an ideal world, that would be the case. I do not dispute the idea that women are in some cases paid less than men. I do, however, dispute the idea that it is in any way systematic or intentional, in most circumstances.
I greatly admire the production values and excellence of the Outlook staff, but I equally implore its writers and editors to pay greater attention to representing the arguments of the opposing side. There are conservatives at Aragon, and we expect the school newspaper to recognize that we too are readers and have opinions worth hearing.
Matthew Blum
Class of 2017
