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.
What about men as sex objects? Ads for Herbal Essences’ products portray women having their hair shampooed by several hunky guys. This product is aimed at women, and it uses men as sex objects to sell itself. But no one complains.
Outback Steakhouse has an ad running right now that shows three women at a table checking out three good-looking male servers. The catchphrase falls along the lines of “variety is the spice of life.” Yet another example of men being treated as sex objects to sell a product, and no one even blinks. But you’re toying with death if you use a woman in a commercial as a sex object. That would be evil, unholy sexism.
There are many more extreme examples of this type of discrimination, but you get the general idea. Portray a woman as dumb or as a sex object, and that’s discrimination and you’re an evil misogynist who is going straight to sexism hell. Portray a guy as dumb or as a sex object and you fit right in with everyone else.
Have you seen those keychains and T-shirts that teen and pre-teen clothing manufacturers sell? The ones that say things like guys make good pets, boys are stupid…throw rocks at them, the stupid factory – where boys are made, and boys lie make them cry?
I ask you, is that any way to condemn sexism? Imagine a guy wearing a shirt that says girls are stupid…throw rocks at them. He wouldn’t get ten yards before crazed women ripped him apart with their bare hands.
Sexism is bad. But it’s bad for everyone, not just women.
