Yahoo and some other political organizations which masquerade as apolitical have been doing this rather stupid bit where they do videos having women acting the way they claim men act toward them, e.g. asking sexist questions or saying sexist things to men. The idea is to show the supposed sexism women face. I could spend pages explaining how stupid this is, but I won't. Instead, I'm going to turn the table and present things that these same women deem as acceptable behavior for women. Tell me how you'd feel if men did the following.
● Imagine men saying: “I’m voting for Rubio rather than Hillary Clinton because he’s a man.” Somehow, I suspect women would scream sexism, yet you hear this all the time from women without any sense of shame.Ok. Those were the easy ones. The warm up period is over. Now let's dig into nastier ground...
● Imagine a man saying: "I got a divorce and started my career." Does that sound cool or does that sound like a real creep to blame his failure to meet his early career goals on his wife? By the way, Olivia Wilde said this with no sense of irony at all.
● Imagine if organizations like CoverGirl and CNN created programs called #BoysCan meant to assure boys that they really can do any number of jobs. What if the steady drip of messages from Disney sitcoms was that boys can do it themselves without any smelly girls helping them! Yay boys!! BoyPower! Sounds annoying, doesn't it ladies?
● Imagine magazines celebrating the idea of the male "cougar," an older man with money who seeks out young women as sexual playthings... "the girl toy." Are you cool with that ladies? Or does that seem creepy?Anyways, my point, for anyone who hasn't figured it out, is not to whine that men have it bad. We don't. Our culture is full of lots of shitty, immoral and lecherous stuff on all sides... that's life, deal with it. My point is that these politicized idiots at places like Yahoo are being super hypocrites for pretending that women are the helpless victims of sexism and unpleasant comments without recognizing that women are perhaps even more guilty than men, something which becomes obvious when you flip around the genders on many of the things aimed at women in our culture, like films and songs and the idiotic comments of famous chickies.
● Speaking of cougars, imagine a movie about a group of men who married rich women and were left for younger men. These men form the ex-Husbands Club. They get together and whine about how unfairly they were treated. Then they set out to get revenge by humiliating and bankrupting their former wives. Would that be a great comedy or would that seem like a rather vile movie? (First Wives Club)
● But there are better comedies! One in particular involves a stay-at-home father who finds out that his hard-driving professional wife is fooling around on him. He meets the other man and they plot their revenge. They put depilatory cream in her shampoo which causes her to lose her hair. They feed her hormones to cause her to develop masculine traits and make her impotent. And they steal all her money. Sound funny to anyone? Or does that sound like one sick film? (The Other Woman)
● How about films about men killing the wives who abuse them? (The Burning Bed etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.)
● How about those casual Lorena Bobbett jokes that still go around two decades later. Would it be funny for men to casually mention cutting up women's genitalia? Probably not, right?
● Imagine if male singers sang songs about how strong and independent they are. "This is my fight song," baby. And declared independence from the "abusive" women in their lives, like in "Independence Day." (We know that ALL women are abusive, right?) Or singing about how vain and selfish women are? How about men listening to female R&B singers singing about how wrong they were not to worship their men and begging these men to forgive them? Sound like fun? Or does that sound insulting.
● Imagine successful men saying that the reason they became models and the such was to "silence" the "girls in school who made fun of me." Victoria Secret model Joan Smalls said that without the slightest bit of shame. And she's not the only one. Right now, social media is full of women posting pictures of the "Revenge Bod as a form of empowerment" according to Women's Health -- this trend was started by Kloe Kardashian. Yet, they whine that the "Dad Bod" is unfair to women. Flip that around and see if that doesn't feel creepy... "Fat women are unfair to men... oh, and here's my toned body to get revenge against the women who dumped me!" Does that sound cool or does the word "douchebag" come to mind?
Thoughts?
By the way, before any "males rights" types show up. Go away you idiots. This is in no way an endorsement of your whiny crap.
How about an entire month devoted to awareness and fundraising for you gender-specific cancer? And let's say that awareness campaign takes over television programming, even programming targeted towards the other gender? Let's say everyone on those programs is made to wear a particular color to demonstrate their awareness and that color is culturally associated with the gender opposite that of the wearers?
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteI don't think cougar status requires wealth, it requires age and an interest in younger men (which is reciprocated not based on the woman's wealth, but her beauty). Think Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate.
Also, its worth noting that there are lots of popular (among both genders) songs characterizing woman individually and as a whole as faithless and vain. Examples that spring to mind are Poison, 99 Problems, Paranoid, Goldigger and Loyal.
As for Lorena Bobbit jokes, I haven't heard any of those in a long time, but perhaps I travel in the wrong social circles :).
I don't hang out on social media but I though revenge pics were guys posting nude photos of their exes. Live and learn.
Your point about Clinton support is a good one, though it's worth noting women who make such a claim are being disingenuous. They are supporting Hillary because she is a mostly because she is a Democrat. If Hillary withdrew I doubt 1 in 50 of her supporters would back Fiorina.
First of all, "controversial"? Since when is pointing out the obvious "controversial". As, what I assume, the lone female voice here, I agree with you. What women celebrate as "equality" they would never put up with from men. Sexual harassment, being overlooked for a jobs, and violence. Only recently have women begun to be held accountable for sexual deviancy with underage students. It used to be every boys' fantasy to sleep with the hot teacher. Now it is actually a sex crime for male AND female teachers.
ReplyDeleteThey are supporting Hillary because she is a mostly because she is a Democrat.
And actually Anthony, I disagree with you. Fiorino does not have a real shot. They are voting for Hillary because she is a woman...otherwise, even a Dem would choose another more-qualified Dem.
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Actually Tryanmax, I agree with you about a specific month for male-oriented health issues! That is great idea. Even though b/c of the ACA, "medical science" has found that PSA tests for prostate CA and colon CA prevention are given WAAAY too often. Just like mammagrams. After 50 years of pushing yearly exams and other preventative exams, NOW they are backtracking as telling up those exams are not so necessary for health. Hmmmmm...wonder why??$$$$??
ReplyDeleteThey are supporting Hillary because she is a woman.
ReplyDeleteCarly Fiorina, being a conservative, is not a woman. In fact, she is a "female impersonator".
Bev,
ReplyDeleteThat also means that you is not a woman.
Kit - Fiorina (and I) would be even in a better position if she WERE a "female impersonator". "FI" would most definitely trump (pardon the pun) actually "female" in the gender politics lottery. But sadly she is a conservative woman who cannot think outside her gender-normative conservative box. Because admitting to one's gender-normative-ness is, well, so paleo and "fly-over-ish".
ReplyDeleteI embrace that I is not a really woman because I will not vote for Hillary or most cases any Democrats. They remind me of this every time they ask for money or their vote...btw, a really, really BAAAAAAD strategy for winning my vote or my money.
Bev,
ReplyDeleteThe article you linked to supports my point. The writer does state Hillary's gender gives her the edge over Sanders, but she also states that the only candidates she could support are those who are liberal. No Republican woman has a shot at the 'Ready for Hillary' brigade.
Of course, Hillary's opponent is likely to be Trump, who has said a lot of stuff that might push women less devoted to a party (either one) towards his opponent (whether that be Hillary or a dude) which muddies the waters a bit.
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Now, I'm not a political analyst and I'm certainly no political writer -- I'm merely a social observer. But I'm no imbecile. If Snooki ran for president, I wouldn't vote for her just because she's a woman. I don't support Carly Fiorina, because we couldn't have more opposite views. Sarah Palin may as well have been a character on Rick and Morty. But here's a woman -- Hillary -- who has spent years in the White House, has proven herself a powerful politician, and has the knowledge, platforms, passion, perspective and qualifications to back it up. She supports gay marriage, racial equality, narrowing the nation's wealth divide, Planned Parenthood, access to safe, legal abortions, eradicating the wage gap -- and she wants to rebuild and empower the middle class. Those are all the qualities I personally am looking for in a president.
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The sad truth is that it still does, which is why Hillary's gender is the tipping point for me when deciding between Hillary or Bernie. Women make up around 51 percent of the population, and I want that 51 percent to be represented fairly in the White House. I want that for years to come, until gender, race and sexual orientation truly don't actually matter.
Anyway, I agree that female pedophiles tend to get off lighter than male pedophiles. That has always been the case and it hasn't changed significantly based on the cases that pop up in the media (women are treated more sympathetically by both the media and juries).
ReplyDeleteAnother legal discrepancy worth noting (though much less problematic) is that in some states (perhaps all of them, haven't done comprehensive research) the age of majority is lower for women than for dudes. For example in Maryland a couple decades ago it was 18 for females, but 16 for males.