Hello, one and all. I recently rediscovered my own blog (is that a thing?), so hey what better place to address what's been bugging me lately: Sexism. Now before we all burn our bras let me try to explain something: the sword had two sides. People tend to view sexism as a single thing, that thing being men picking on women. Men seems to believe men are inferior to women in every single way, right? Wrong.
Last semester I endured a Race, Class, and Gender anthropology class. As one of only a handful of males, you can talk about uncomfortable. I listened to my gender be attacked over and over again because we "oppress women". I heard all about how women are expected to live up to certain appearance standards because male marketers have put out Barbie dolls and magazines which present an unrealistic view of the female body. That much is true. But have you seen a freaking G.I. Joe doll? Or Channing Tatum? We are subjected to the same unrealistic standards women are, but we aren't allowed to speak up about them lest we come off as too emotional and whiny.
We are also attacked because we have a mentality of "women should stay in the kitchen." I actually don't know anybody who believes this (though I'm sure they exist!). Who I do know though, is women who expect men to provide for their every need. We are supposed to roll in the dough like the typical gender role, but many get offended when it is thrown back at them.
I recall an episode of The View (Terrible show) in which the four women talked about a woman who cut off the testicles of her cheating husband. "Good for her!" one of the hosts loudly exclaimed. No let's flip it around. Picture a show where Johnny Depp, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, and Jay Leno sit around a bar and drink beer, then one of them tells a story about a man who cut off his wife's breasts and says "good for him!" Suddenly America would be up in arms!
What I'm basically trying to get at is, don't be a sexist. And that applies to women too. We men are expected to have six-pack abs (achievable only by years of hard work or very lucky genetics), bring in the money, we aren't allowed to wear makeup, we have to dress a certain way, and if we complain you say "I have to push a baby out of my..." you know the drill.
Keep it real.
Last semester I endured a Race, Class, and Gender anthropology class. As one of only a handful of males, you can talk about uncomfortable. I listened to my gender be attacked over and over again because we "oppress women". I heard all about how women are expected to live up to certain appearance standards because male marketers have put out Barbie dolls and magazines which present an unrealistic view of the female body. That much is true. But have you seen a freaking G.I. Joe doll? Or Channing Tatum? We are subjected to the same unrealistic standards women are, but we aren't allowed to speak up about them lest we come off as too emotional and whiny.
We are also attacked because we have a mentality of "women should stay in the kitchen." I actually don't know anybody who believes this (though I'm sure they exist!). Who I do know though, is women who expect men to provide for their every need. We are supposed to roll in the dough like the typical gender role, but many get offended when it is thrown back at them.
I recall an episode of The View (Terrible show) in which the four women talked about a woman who cut off the testicles of her cheating husband. "Good for her!" one of the hosts loudly exclaimed. No let's flip it around. Picture a show where Johnny Depp, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, and Jay Leno sit around a bar and drink beer, then one of them tells a story about a man who cut off his wife's breasts and says "good for him!" Suddenly America would be up in arms!
What I'm basically trying to get at is, don't be a sexist. And that applies to women too. We men are expected to have six-pack abs (achievable only by years of hard work or very lucky genetics), bring in the money, we aren't allowed to wear makeup, we have to dress a certain way, and if we complain you say "I have to push a baby out of my..." you know the drill.
Keep it real.
