2008 Woodie Awards
Sexism hurts both sexes
Laura Johnson
Issue date: 5/18/04 Section: Editorials
Sexism: it's everywhere.
The woman who can't keep her job because her boss doesn't want to give her enough time off to take care of her kids. The girl who can't play football because "it's a man's sport."
And of course we have the evil female-soul-destroying media: Britney, Barbie, Playboy magazine, "Charlie's Angels" or whatever.
Young women are constantly bombardedby conflicting messages that destroy their delicate self-images and prevent them from achieving all that they can: girls aren't supposed to swear. Girls should wear skirts and makeup to get attention. Girls shouldn't like action movies or video games. Ahh, the insanity of it all!
But, what ho! Here come the Protectors of the Female Psyche! Women's rights lobbies, feminist authors and even the Girl Scouts scream bloody murder at the first hint of sex-based discrimination. But they only do so for one group: women. What about the guys?
In today's society, it's okay for men to be stupid. It's okay for them to underachieve, slack, freeload and fail.
As much as the media promotes females as sexual objects, it portrays men as stupid losers who are allowed to underachieve. Our society propagates this image and allows it to live.
What type of message does that send to our young men?
Just look at commercials on TV. A recent ad for microwave meal pastries showed a woman pulling an empty box from a freezer and asking her husband if he had seen the last of the pastries.
We then cut to the husband, who is outside and eating the food. He says something to the effect of "No, I haven't seen it anywhere, honey," and pulls down the window shade that he is standing by. The windowshade is backlit and we can see his silhouette clearly as he takes another bite of the pastry.
The wife walks over and raises the shade, revealing the culpable husband. Is she angry at his lie or flabbergasted by his stupidity? No, because he's a man and men are dumb. Let me tell you, if the gender roles had been reversed and the wife had pulled the stupid stunt, women's lobbies across the United States would have taken issue with such a negative portrayal of women.
The woman who can't keep her job because her boss doesn't want to give her enough time off to take care of her kids. The girl who can't play football because "it's a man's sport."
And of course we have the evil female-soul-destroying media: Britney, Barbie, Playboy magazine, "Charlie's Angels" or whatever.
Young women are constantly bombardedby conflicting messages that destroy their delicate self-images and prevent them from achieving all that they can: girls aren't supposed to swear. Girls should wear skirts and makeup to get attention. Girls shouldn't like action movies or video games. Ahh, the insanity of it all!
But, what ho! Here come the Protectors of the Female Psyche! Women's rights lobbies, feminist authors and even the Girl Scouts scream bloody murder at the first hint of sex-based discrimination. But they only do so for one group: women. What about the guys?
In today's society, it's okay for men to be stupid. It's okay for them to underachieve, slack, freeload and fail.
As much as the media promotes females as sexual objects, it portrays men as stupid losers who are allowed to underachieve. Our society propagates this image and allows it to live.
What type of message does that send to our young men?
Just look at commercials on TV. A recent ad for microwave meal pastries showed a woman pulling an empty box from a freezer and asking her husband if he had seen the last of the pastries.
We then cut to the husband, who is outside and eating the food. He says something to the effect of "No, I haven't seen it anywhere, honey," and pulls down the window shade that he is standing by. The windowshade is backlit and we can see his silhouette clearly as he takes another bite of the pastry.
The wife walks over and raises the shade, revealing the culpable husband. Is she angry at his lie or flabbergasted by his stupidity? No, because he's a man and men are dumb. Let me tell you, if the gender roles had been reversed and the wife had pulled the stupid stunt, women's lobbies across the United States would have taken issue with such a negative portrayal of women.
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