I paid a visit to that most saintly of companies the other today, Tesco. The woman behind the till was talking to one of the packers, also a woman. As I approached the till, the packer moved to end the conversation. All I heard her say was,
“...typical man.”Till Woman agreed, with a stern look. No-one in the queue so much as batted an eyelid.
Being too surprised to do anything about it at the time, I also did nothing. But I kick myself not to have asked her whether, if a man had exclaimed, “...typical woman,” she would have considered him a male chauvinist pig, or whether she would have considered it tolerable behaviour.
I doubt that the latter would have happened, because, while it’s perfectly socially acceptable for a woman to insult a man (indeed, all men) in this way, vice versa is not. “But that’s sexist, you can’t say that!” they would no doubt exclaim. If you can’t say something because it’s sexist, then you can’t pick and choose which sex can have a bash at the other. That would be… well, sexist, funnily enough.
So there you are: Socially speaking, sexism is wrong, unless a woman does it.
I wonder whether this social acceptance has wheedled its way into the public hive mind because of so-called feminism (i.e. female chauvinism). There is quite a big difference between feminism and female chauvinism: Feminists strive for equality between men and women. Female chauvinists strive for more power to women. It’s a subtle difference, I know, but it’s quite a huge one when you think about it. The former is a worthy cause; the latter is the same sort of reasoning that dictators and other compulsive egomaniacs use to fuel their never-ending desire for conquest.
The next time you watch someone spouting their spiel about women’s rights and woes, whether on the TV, in Tesco or elsewhere, just consider: Are they really fighting for justice, or are they fighting for their own selfish and vain desires? If it's the latter, then it's your duty as a citizen of humanity to point it out. You'll get it off your chest, they'll learn something (even if it's that they can't get away with such a remark) and society can go forward more positively.
Whatever it is, it seems to have given these women the power base that they obviously crave for shallow reasons. The men are just as pathetic for being weak about it and allowing it to happen as the women are for being vain and childish to do it.
The dawn of so-called feminism, at least in the UK, seems to have been around the time "girl power" entered the lexicon. I'm not sure whether the marketing team that came up with the 'Spice Girls' product invented the term or jumped on the bandwagon. Regardless, the effect was to amplify something evil and add to the descruction of the society. Even worse, it was all presumably for the sole purposes of cashing in.
The lyrics to their song, "Wannabe" has it all. Read those lyrics and you have the complete picture of female chauvinism. Of particular interest is the lyric, "If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give." That's what so-called feminism is all about: Gaining something without giving anything back, at men's (and, ultimately, everyone's) expense.
The Spice Girls should be ashamed at themselves for what they purpetuated. They failed the cause of Feminism, by become female versions of the supposed oppressive men that resulted in feminism in the first place; and they were pretenders to the concept of Equality, tempting a lot of young, equality-driven admirers subtly across to the dark side towards bitchiness, anger and hatred. That the Spice Girls might themselves have been young and innocent to their crimes is no defense: As adults, they were (and are) responsible for their own actions, and they have never apologised since.
I’m sure this post will get some poor soles' hackles up. Well, good – I welcome it. If you’re one of those people, then the chances are that I’ve hit a nerve due to personal reasons you may not have considered or admitted to yourself. Understanding is the first step towards acceptance, and then self-improvement. There are no vendettas here, except regarding crimes against humanity. If you’re offended, it must be because you have an axe to grind to the contrary, or else you've been misled. Go and do some thinking, and find out the truth about (and for) yourself. See it as a challenge. It’s certainly a worthy one.
So, what do you think about that? Now you know how I feel.
8 comments:
Mi-er - Alan, I have a Tesco connection with this story myself.
In Tesco the other month, we both were in an aisle looking at something like tomato sauce; perhaps purée or tins of tomatoes.
A woman came down the aisle with kids, one was pushing the trolley but smaller than it.
She said "watch out for the lady" when my partner was clearly stood in front of me and only I could have been "taken out" by the trolley danger, but apparently, I simply didn't exist, and the only difference was, I was a man, and I think I was meant to hear this.
Also the same thing as you overheard also happened to me, except it was to my face, and at the reception of the doctors clinic. I wont have a problem with this as soon as politicians are brave to talk in the same way about woman, religious groups and ethnic "minorities".
Richi
Perhaps the blog of Nyquist is a good place for all the many millions of readers of the blog (or just me) to collect a list of all fictional and television characters of the modern feminist/ male detesting age...which are either male and stupid and incompetent, or female and unconvincingly intelligent.
I have collected in mind a few, but then I hate popular culture, so I must be missing hundreds.
All I do know is that sometimes I am not fast enough to turn the channel when DS9 is on and one catches an insulting promotion for something called Chuck: a total idiot and fool who works for intelligence by accident, and works with super-genius, tough fighting women.
I have never once encountered in all fiction, a female character who is exceptionally more able and intelligent than average women, or the other men in the story...and the character is remotely convincing or believable. In fact am not sure there are any believable intelligent women on American television.
This isn't to include televsion of a better age, i.e. the 90s, in which the X-files,which did everything else to perfection, also knew how to write the realistic and believable empowered independent clever female, as well as having the talent of Ms Anderson to perform. I have mentioned this in a small essay.
What the television producers appear not to notice is the damage they surely would do to feminism by making the only intelligent women so ridiculous, unless of course this was the intention? Accept in combination with men looking ridiculous and foolish, it is obvious what there discriminatory intention is.
Being a stupid man, all I could come up with was this
http://www.flymf.com/NewLook/v1i5-0704/TVMenStupidHome.htm
there isn't much else high on Google.
There is a book I have found which has done a lot of the work in America I am already trying to do. The book is called Spreading Misandry and I have wrote out some quotes from it:
"Not even all women see the world revolving around themselves"
I love that sentence, it admits and says so much, without having to say it. It is refreshingly honest, which is probably why it is worth buying the book.
P8, as a result of 80s gender studies: "Men are societies official scapegoats and held responsible for all evil ....men must be penalised even as innocent individuals for men's collective guilt throughout history"
Page 11
Women are seldom if ever criticized as a group except by men who are presented as buffoons and thus need not be taken seriously. Men, on the other hand, are routinely ridiculed or trivialized as a group. Obviously, sexism in the form of misandry is considered "politically correct".
"If women have such high standards, artistic and intellectual, how can we explain the sleazy sordid trivial world of talk shows games shows and soap operas." p11
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Spreading+misandry&x=0&y=0
Regarding your own Tesco trolley incident - sounds like you should have replied with "watch out for the hand" and pushed her out of the way. In self-defence, obviously. After all, she was effectively wielding a weapon and clearly intent on using it against you.
Regarding collecting evidence on TV of the damage caused by People who would Consider Themselves Feminists - sounds like a good idea to me. If enough material is gathered, I'll set aside a page.
I must admit that your point about the believability of strong female characters as portrayed in films. Perhaps the problem is more the fact that films deliberately perpetuate stereotypes at all, rather than what those stereotypes are. I find films like Tombraider embarrassing, when a frail woman is put into a role that involves beating up men twice her size. And winning, of course, make-up and hair intact. I also find films like The Mummy embarrassing, where the British are portrayed as bumbling and pathetic. In the former case - I see it as a deliberate attempt to flatter the age of what you might call Spice Girl Syndrome, the dangerous blur of distinction between feminism as the strive for gender equality and feminism as the strive for more power to women. See also John Cleese's Crap Quote in the panel opposite.
The unbelievable physically and/or mentally powerful women bestowed in TV and film are not only dangerous in the long-run, for the reasons you mention. They're also insulting to men (who have to bear the brunt of Spice Girl Syndrome) and women (as if they can be taken in by this crap, and empowered by such ridiculously and blatantly false characters).
Two good URLs there, Rich, thanks. I repeat them here to include the hyperlink, in case anyone's interested:
TVMenStupid - a look at how men are portrayed gratuitously negatively on TV
Spreading Misandry - a book on the subject of misandry
Careful about 'confirmation bias'. I'm sure you've heard people say 'women are like that' or 'typical woman'
I have indeed - but not in such a blatant and high-profile way.
For example, it would be unthinkable for a man to exclaim "typical woman" at the counter at Tesco, for whatever reason. It's just not the done thing; it's not socially acceptable. Hence the point of the blog entry.
Post a Comment