Foe or Friend

"When you start to humanize your enemy, you, in turn, may be dehumanized by your community." - Cassie Jaye

Cassie Jaye, a former feminist, outlines several problems facing men and women during her TED Talk "Meeting the Enemy", but she doesn't just tackle these issues, she introduces her invaluable experiences as an interviewer, struggling to go through many statements that she had previously disagreed with. But, after a while, she realized her biased stance on these controversial topics prompting her to question everything she knew about the men's rights movement. By conducting numerous interviews, she had come to a revelation which changed her goal from "exposing" the men's rights activist to outlining unique differences and problems that each gender have to face. Concerning the first quote, Cassie Jaye faced significant backlash against her own community just because she had gained more knowledge on the other side of a a very controversial topic.

In short, Cassie Jaye's ability to look back at her own faults and keep an open mind is a trait that can attained by anyone. I realized that this trait requires people to become open minded and less defensive; by being open minded and less defensive, mutual understandings can be achieved more often which can also maybe lead to a new friend. It is  important to remember that there are more than one side to every story. Opinions are formed from facts of a subject, but what if a person's opinion is faltered due to cherry picked information. That person will forever be stuck in their stubborn ways unless they truly want to grow as a person.
-Marc Pascual