I sliced my hand open doing the dishes on thurs. Three stitches. So typing this is gonna hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you.
On the plane from Chicago to Winnipeg earlier this month the stewardess made a joke about how one should assist any children or "untrained husbands" before yourself when putting on the oxygen masks in an emergency. People laughed. So did I. However, it occurred to me immediately afterwards that had it been a male steward it would not have been funny if he made a comment about "untrainted wives". THAT, I take it, is offensive. This reminded me of two ancedotes:
1. My mother has told me repeatedly that, in the early 70s, if she wanted to date a guy, she would just go up and ask him out. She says that she grew up through the women's rights movement and remembers what it was like to feel empowered. She has repeatedly told me how she doesn't get it why women, especially ones "my age" do not do this as frequently as she feels women did when she was in her 20s or late teens.
2. In high school I asked one of my friends (a strikingly attractive blonde) why she never asks guys out. She told me guys always ask her out. But I insisted, and asked why, if she sees a guy she likes, SHE doesn't make the first move. She told me she was too scared. I told her guys are too. I remember being quite annoyed at her response.
So, a short rant: I think it is sad that over 30 years after my mom was on the dating scene women in their early to mid twenties have, to a large part, DEVOLVED SUCH THAT THEY EMBODY AND FOLLOW MANY OF THE TRADITIONAL STEREOTYPES ABOUT SOCIAL ROLES IN REGARDS TO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS AND JUST HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN GENERAL. Just look at pop culture...and the roles that it depicts women in: look at the roles that women enforce ON EACH OTHER!!! It would be so easy to digress into a rant about the bum rap that men, and masculinity in general, get (see "Iron John" by Robert Bly) in relation to this, but I won't. Instead, I say to women in general, (AND EVEN WOMEN ON THIS SITE): Look at yourself...just look at yourself. Think of all the bad stereotypes: that women are weak, irrational, emotional, manipulative, backstabbing, pety, competative with each other to an extent that is at best...pathetic. Traditionally, once upon a time, it was "men" who imposed or placed these labels on women. Now I think the labels are put by women on themselves. I take it that one of the morals of feminism is that these can be myths. But the sad thing is, they aren't.
(Of course, one should not take me to be speaking completely generally about ALL women. I am certainly not talking about my grandmother, or my cousin's 1yo. But the target of the above rant is a far larger portion of the (young) female population that you might think. Deal with it. If you doubt me, see the book "Female Chauvinist Pigs" ).
Man this stuff gets me pissed off.
On the plane from Chicago to Winnipeg earlier this month the stewardess made a joke about how one should assist any children or "untrained husbands" before yourself when putting on the oxygen masks in an emergency. People laughed. So did I. However, it occurred to me immediately afterwards that had it been a male steward it would not have been funny if he made a comment about "untrainted wives". THAT, I take it, is offensive. This reminded me of two ancedotes:
1. My mother has told me repeatedly that, in the early 70s, if she wanted to date a guy, she would just go up and ask him out. She says that she grew up through the women's rights movement and remembers what it was like to feel empowered. She has repeatedly told me how she doesn't get it why women, especially ones "my age" do not do this as frequently as she feels women did when she was in her 20s or late teens.
2. In high school I asked one of my friends (a strikingly attractive blonde) why she never asks guys out. She told me guys always ask her out. But I insisted, and asked why, if she sees a guy she likes, SHE doesn't make the first move. She told me she was too scared. I told her guys are too. I remember being quite annoyed at her response.
So, a short rant: I think it is sad that over 30 years after my mom was on the dating scene women in their early to mid twenties have, to a large part, DEVOLVED SUCH THAT THEY EMBODY AND FOLLOW MANY OF THE TRADITIONAL STEREOTYPES ABOUT SOCIAL ROLES IN REGARDS TO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS AND JUST HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN GENERAL. Just look at pop culture...and the roles that it depicts women in: look at the roles that women enforce ON EACH OTHER!!! It would be so easy to digress into a rant about the bum rap that men, and masculinity in general, get (see "Iron John" by Robert Bly) in relation to this, but I won't. Instead, I say to women in general, (AND EVEN WOMEN ON THIS SITE): Look at yourself...just look at yourself. Think of all the bad stereotypes: that women are weak, irrational, emotional, manipulative, backstabbing, pety, competative with each other to an extent that is at best...pathetic. Traditionally, once upon a time, it was "men" who imposed or placed these labels on women. Now I think the labels are put by women on themselves. I take it that one of the morals of feminism is that these can be myths. But the sad thing is, they aren't.
(Of course, one should not take me to be speaking completely generally about ALL women. I am certainly not talking about my grandmother, or my cousin's 1yo. But the target of the above rant is a far larger portion of the (young) female population that you might think. Deal with it. If you doubt me, see the book "Female Chauvinist Pigs" ).
Man this stuff gets me pissed off.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
Well, every street with food on it
about your blog, though, you're right. too many girls in this day and age are trying so hard to reverse what the women's right movement accomplished. i'm not a huge fan of feminism for my own reasons, but i hate that girls are the ones continuing a large portion of the self-degradation (sp?) that's so prevalent today. if a girl doesn't look just how a model in a magazine does, she's fat or ugly, and the teenybopper flipping through the pages is the first one to point it out. if a girl is confident in herself and her sexual needs, other women are the first to call her a slut or a whore. if a girl wants to get out of something, she starts placating about how she's too weak or just a girl. i don't know about them, but being "just a girl" has never stopped me from doing anything i wanted to or was asked of me. perhaps the shape i'm in or my lack of knowledge in the area because i have not been taught or trained, but never because of my gender. i work at home depot and can do most everything the boys can do -- lumber cuts, rope and chain cutting, making keys, driving forklift, etc. i have a good knowledge of our product and can find anything you ask me to. however, the only real sexism i face is other women who come in looking for help. i offer my services, but they'd much rather have a "man who knows what he's talking about." it's disgusting that not only women, but people in general, continue this kind of behavior. it's kind of hard to be liberated when the other women in the world just look for a way to push you back down to where you started.