Discrimination Shifts: A Gender-Related Skeuomorph

(Review)

The essay entitled Discrimination shifts:a gender-related skeuomorph deals with serious
issues that affect our society, such as discrimination, human rights,freedom and the laws
concerning the same-sex marriage.According to the Oxford Dictionary a skeuomorph is an
object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artefact made from another material1
and usually the result is not a functional copy.This refers to the approach of the European
Union on the partnership issue.It is just an interface that tries to mimic a solution to an
everlasting problem.
The European family deals with a tip of the iceberg kind of situation.As the author
states:it is the black sheep of the family which is likely to become a real real dark
horse.Denying or minimizing the gravity of this problem can lead to devastating results.Due
to the fact that the majority of citizens do not deal with a partnership related problem in their
every day life,the situation is not considered of high importance.In reality,parnership stands at
the base of our society because it represents family which is in itself the foundation of the
future.
The author uses a short motto to familiarize the reader with the topic that it is going to be
discussed.More precisely, it is an affirmation made by Michel de Montaigne and its
profoundity is reflected in the fact that the true meaning of the motto is clear for the reader
only after reading the essay.He was not the only one to make this affirmation.Paul Valery in
an discourse about aesthetics repeated the same idea in different words2.An even more
suitable motto for this essay could have been the quote mentioned by the author from Albert
Einstein stating that the world is in danger due to those people who choose ignorance as a way
of life.People have a tendancy to embrace a belief which is not fully understood by them (this
usually happens in politics and football) and fight a battle in which they are blindfolded
1 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/skeuomorph
2 Paul Valery,Poezii.Dialoguri Poetica si Estetica,Univers,1988

without knowing who they are fighting for or who they are pointing their guns at.They are
cowardly hiding behind an idea pretending to fight for the greater good of the majority.
The essay consists of one single part and it is constructed as follows: first, the author
mentions the European Union, giving quotes for a better description; then the problem of the
social policy in the EU; the analysis of the word marriage and the difficult situation of the
same-sex marriage in some EU states ( underlying the fact that it is a basic human right the
liberty of choosing a partner and since equality should be present everything, this issue must
not be a problem-but it is).Unfortunately, even nowadays discrimination is a serious
threatening to democracy and the violation of the basic human rights is an existing obstacle to
the realization of the democratical goals.To deny the individuals right to choose officially a
partner is not a characteristic of a country or union which states to respect its population.
Instead, as the author points out, it reminds of the former American racial segregationist
society, the South African apartheid system or Nazi Germanys white supremacist society
We condemn Hitler for killing all those who were not considered worthy of being an Aryan
(including sick persons, gipsies, even homosexuals) but indirectly we do the same: we
deprecate the persons who are different from us, no matter if we are referring to racial
differences or different sexual orientation.
It depends on us whether we decide to be a reminiscent of the apparently long-forgotten and
morally condemnable society or follow Darwins evolutionist theory and become highly
evaluated human beings.
The authors tone is informative, but also passionate.Each line can be interpreted as a cry for
awareness regarding the problems of our society.The conclusion of the essay would be the
necessity for change, though the author concludes in a pessimistic manner with the words of
Georg Lichtenberg: [p]erhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including
our own