Creeping misogyny. Like the phrase; hate the concept.
Seriously, though--it exists. Little things. For a start, the tempest in a teapot in the Skeptic/Atheist community. A woman who speaks out and blogs about skepticism, atheism and feminism, mentioned on her blog that a man who had recently heard her speak at a convention found himself alone in an elevator with her, and asked her up to his room for coffee. She pointed out that she found that to be a bit creepy, and requested (politely) that men refrain from doing that. All of a sudden, one of the world's leading (male) atheists castigated her for her comments! The gist of his argument was that there are women being badly treated all over...many of them treated much worse than being on the receiving end of a come-on in an elevator, and she should just shut up and not sweat the small shit. The man ignores the fact that little things become larger if not nipped in the bud.
As well, I've been hearing men (I should say, overhearing men) complaining about what they see as excessive body hair on women. Hey, guys. I got news. Grown women have hair. Many of us remove some of it. Armpits, for instance, and lower legs. Some try a lot harder and take it off our upper legs. Most of us have known the horror of having to shave what is euphemistically called "the bikini area," so that there isn't pubic hair hanging out of our swimsuits. There are four OTC ways to remove hair. Razors, tweezers, wax and depilatory creams. Razors are my weapon of choice in the constant war on hair. The downside? Shaving can hurt. The hair grows back fast, and with nasty sharp ends that can become ingrown and infected and painful. I had a friend once advise me to tweeze out my leg hairs. Dearly Beloved, tweezers are good for eyebrows and those occasional chin hairs, but leg hair removal by that method would be a full-time job! Many women use wax. Wax is not like candle wax...it's more like resin. You apply it warm (hot), let it cool some and rip it off. It pulls the hair out by the roots. It hurts. A lot. Especially in sensitive areas. The hair grows back more slowly, and it's new hair, without the sharply cut ends left by shaving, but it hurts a lot. Depilatory creams burn. Think about it. A chemical strong enough to dissolve hair is going to wreak havoc with your skin. I've used depilatories, and the results are like a second degree sunburn. Guys, if a woman is willing to go through all that for your delectation, consider it a gift but don't take it for granted and expect it as the norm. I repeat--grown women have hair. This is a little thing, in the Grand Scheme of Things, but when men expect real live women to emulate the airbrushed pictures in magazines, we have a problem. Not to mention that the removal of pubic hair allows a woman to appear more like a little girl. Don't you think that's just a little bit...well...creepy?
Then, there is the ubiquitous War on Women. Women's health services are being cut. Masectomies are practically outpatient surgery, these days. Planned Parenthood, relied on by millions of poor women, is being de-funded. Pharmacists are permitted to refuse to fill prescriptions for birth control if their religion forbids it. Rape is being redefined to exclude statutory rape, or date rape. "If you're not all beat up, you haven't been raped," seems to be the new standard.
I know this post seems to be sweating the small shit and just skimming the serious stuff. True. That's the way I feel this morning.
We need to stand up and fight for our rights, again. Still. Forever.
That's odd. When did women in the OR have their phalluses measured under aesthesia (for a Singapore condom manufacturer and an American ED researcher) without being asked ahead of time or signing a waiver? (all so a temp in the lawyer's offices can spread 17 cm x 16 cm around the world on Facebook? When did men last complain about women in the locker room, or the men's room, thus exposing their penes (rendering them subject to the Sex Registry)? When did women work an average of 42 hrs/week? When do I last remember a woman doing garbage pick-pup, snow removal, ces-pool plunging, main-line electric connection, tree surgery, roofing, or complaining that they'd been raped? (I was, and expected to enjoy it!). With 90% of all work deaths male, one can hardly expect men to be overly concerned about the dangers of pink-collar work; social work must be dangerous enough! Men are not misogynists so much that women like to complain that they are. Perhaps it's that left-over frustration with male-dominated religion (of women's approval) that they have, perhaps, or the fact that boys could swim in the nude but girls could not (resulting in the g-string swimming costumes that render women the least-bit phony when it comes even to false modesty, a double negative with a positive female face. What does annoy men, however, is when women pretend to be equals -- and then don't compete on an equal basis which, after all, is how men have always defined equality: being a good loser and a better winner. Even within men's equality there is equity. If women were so anxious to get out of the kitchen, they could have created something more convincing than the ABC 123 sampler on the wall, after all. Men invented the kitchen (a gay man, actually) and straight men most everything in it; then women complain they are imprisoned in it! Men don't like ingratitude; but that weakness of theirs can hardly be construed as misogyny! Whilst we're at it. How about androphobia, misandry, and misanthropia which are seething rampant amongst feminists and are a gross examples of pschopathic sociopathy turned into a plague of harpies, common scolds, and whiners. What do you want? A magic wand? All men have one, and even that won't satisfy you. You want a bigger one, you want one that pops up like a plebe on command, you want one you don't have to look at, you want one that gives you satisfactions -- and pays you money. Sorry, but the self-righteousness of your complaints gets a defendant's response. Were I the judge, frankly, I'd dismiss your case.
ReplyDeleteHey. I never said men don't have problems. I got time for mine; you got time for yours. Your biggest one is that you're an anonymous asshole, leaving comments on a five-year-old post. What have you done for yourself lately? IMO, you need a new hobby.
DeleteIf you were t read more of the entries on this blog you'd find that I speak for myself, not for anyone else...with the possible exception of a few female murder victims, done in at the hand of the one who promised to love, honour and cherish them forever...but I suppose that's OK.
It seems you're not the judge you would like to be.