There’s a commercial I’ve been hearing on the radio for some kind of premium for business travelers. I am not the best advertising audience in my pre-caffeinated state; I don’t know which hotel chain is being advertised, but it’s something about a free stay after ten stays.
And the spin is, hey, you’re being rewarded for things business travelers already do. So “it’s like being rewarded for wearing a tie. Or like being rewarded for shaving. Or like being rewarded for putting on pants.”
What do these things have in common. Umm….I know!
They’re things male business travelers do.
Now I grant you, female business travelers often put on pants. But they also often put on pantyhose. And makeup. And that wasn’t in the commercial.
Once again, the default person is male. And you know what? I must have heard that commercial ten times before I realized the problem. Because “the patriarchy, you’re soaking in it.” Because I, too, think of the default person as male, despite a lifetime of feminism. Sigh.
Did you ever read my post about the sexist hotel TV commercial? I about lost my damn mind when I saw it, i.e. “Surely that didn’t just happen…”
Wow. That’s way worse than mine.
I think it’s still on YouTube, if you’d like to view the travesty.
The evil corporate retail giant which is international and caters to the average Joe (can we guess which one?) has its own nasty little secrets. Believe it or not, in most of their customer service literature, the clientel is always referred to as ‘her’, because by their calculations and experience with the crowd in general, the majority of their shoppers and shoppers in general are women.
But this is coming from someone who’s still pissed off that a lot of toys and such are color-coded….blue for boys, pink for girls….
Their math is right. I have 3 or 4 pairs of shoes in my closet and the wife has over 15-20 pairs. Women travel less because they choose to spend their time at home (usually because of the children). Their is still a lot of sexism both ways these days.
My current beef is that today’s males are being portrayed as major mental pygmies ie “Everyone loves Raymond” and “The King of Queens” to name but just a few. Another example is the show “Scrubs”. I have to endure almost 1 full half our of cosmetic, hair coloring, and “freshness” product endorsements.
If women truly want equality, then they will ultimately have to concede that they no longer need males, and stop relying on male wallets for all of their needs/wants. If they choose to need or want a male and subjugate themselves for that financial support, then the one who is picking up the tab is usually the one who is in “control”. I have observed that it matters not on the sex in control for that rule to come into play either.
I do have to ask though at what point that being a feminist crossed over into the the netherworld where femininity is lacking in totality. The other fallout has been that more and more single women are complaining that dates are more of a job interview than what a date should be. Apparently pagan women have been having a real tough time with that. Interestingly enough, I have not heard that same complaint from the gay community. Maybe it’s because they don’t have that complication at all but then again, they got their own issues.
My current beef is that today’s males are being portrayed as major mental pygmies ie “Everyone loves Raymond” and “The King of Queens” to name but just a few.
Yes! Along with The Simpsons, Life with Jim, Family Guy, etc., the overarching theme being that fat, lazy, alcoholic “mental pygmies” all have hot, devoted, slim wives who cater to their needs and find them sexually attractive.
These shows are not insulting to men. They are male fantasies.
If women truly want equality, then they will ultimately have to concede…
Wow. I simply haven’t the words. Chutzpah at its finest.
Yea. I get that comment a lot.
How funny Evn should think that it’s a male fantasy for us males to be stupid and have a slim wife. In actuality, there are quite a large number of males that are actually educated. skinny, and have fat wives. Americans as a whole are obese. The World and American health organization will substantiate that fact.
I find it particularly sad that self esteem, weight, mental, emotional, sexual, and financial wants and needs should even cross the line into femininity and equality.
Just because we “claim it’s unfair” doesn’t actually mean it is so. Feel free to ask for your own menu, your own bill, open your own door, and your own salary requirements. Why should I give you or anyone else for that matter anything? At what point did the world owe me something? If I sat around waiting for stuff to fall in my lap, I would have starved along time ago. Respect is earned and not “just granted”.
Underachievers have nothing to squawk about. To quota Mr. Edison, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work.” Chutzpah indeed. Welcome to the world of the mindless, working drone. We get up, we got to work. We are under appreciated and are underpaid. Hmm. Wait! That’s your bitch too.
It’s maybe time to stop banging the drum of differences, and maybe start banging the one of how we can work together as a community. Then again, that might mean concession, and compromises. Oops. I said those dirty words again. Sorry.
“If women truly want equality, then they will ultimately have to concede that they no longer need males, and stop relying on male wallets for all of their needs/wants. ”
Wow.
That’s kind of presumptuous isn’t it?
I mean….I am the breadwiener in my household. In fact, I’m about to finanically support my husband going back into college. A lot of women that I know, especially those who are on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to financial classes, seem to not only work outside of the house they also take care of their children and homesteads. When does it become relying on male wallets’ when most men come home and expect supper on the table, the children taken care of, the house cleaned, and you have to work to survive? Do you think you can get even a semi-decent job when you’re about the only person taking on ‘household’ responsibilties? Maybe it’s not so much relying on men’s wallets as opposed to having to take the time to play mom to a man who’s pretty capable of doing all that kind of stuff too?
I’m the kind of woman that wants her opinion weighed equally. If you get the door for me, thanks. I’m also inclined to get the door for you two. I look at it as whoever gets there first, not a courtesy that is engendered. But I also address a seven year old male as ‘Sir’ when I speak to him, as well as his seventy year old grandfather.
Maybe the portrayal of men as ‘major mental pygmies’ occured when women had to forgo families for careers because they weren’t stupid enough to put up with the kind of sexist thinking that some man had to open their wallet to support them. They supported themselves by creating archetypes of the crap they refused to deal with.
How long has the Simpsons been running?
“Their math is right. I have 3 or 4 pairs of shoes in my closet and the wife has over 15-20 pairs….”
I have 4. Sneakers, work shoes, sandles, crocs. But by the same token, a man can wear the same suit twice a week to the office and no one ever notices. If a woman does, she’s either poor or frumpy or doesn’t care about her appearance. Their math may be right, but it’s as twisted as the rest of our divided engenderment. Level the playing field there, and the shoes would disappear from her closet or multiply in yours.
“Women travel less because they choose to spend their time at home (usually because of the children). ”
That’s an interesting assumption.
And there in lies the real issue at heart. I propose not taking care of folks who can take care of themselves. It’s called personally responsibility and accountability. (it works both ways and it even works across race, fiscal status, etc.)
I do have to ask that if you no longer have the divided engenderments, then you are proposing is becoming just another sexless, mindless working drone. Was that REALLY what was and is wanted by today’s feminists? Somehow I find that truly hard to believe.
I’m not saying that we cannot be empowered by our genders in whatever role we choose.
We just shouldn’t be limited by them.
I have found in my travels that in today’s day an age, the only limitations are mostly self imposed, are self imagined and that any failure’s on record were of the doing of the individual(s) concerned.
Don’t get me wrong, discrimination and blacklisting still happens in the public and private sectors (both ways) but today they KNOW they are doing it and don’t care because they KNOW they can get away with it via the methods they are committing those acts. Sadly, there are royal shit’s everywhere. That’s not an equality issue; I contend that’s a personal behaviour issue. I content that we don’t do business with, worship with, associate with, or even pay attention to folks who behave badly. They will get the message when their businesses fail or they have no family nor friends.
Either you believe you can achieve grasping the brass ring, or you believe that you can’t. There are far too many opportunities in today’s world that there are no excuses for achieving a dream.
Correction: No excuses for NOT achieving a dream.
*applause*