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60 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
60 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
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Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram
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Wednesday Oct. 25, 1989
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Sexism and a commentator's misplaced fear of fly
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By 'Asta Brown
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Not long ago on National Public Radio, there was a great flap over
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a new advertisement for Sansabelt men's slacks. In an apparent attempt
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to to give the brand's image some new voltage, the ad shows a woman
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confiding that she never decides whether a passing man warrants her
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attention "until I look down." The NPR commentator was having none of
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it. Since such crude statements about women a no longer indulged by
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society, she argued, we should now raise a hue and cry on behalf of all
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the men wronged by this reverse sexism.
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This is very high-minded, and surely there are at least a couple of
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guys out there crossing their legs and feeling grateful for the reverse
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chivalry. But most men aren't going to find such an ad offensive,
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they're going to find it for what it is: a feeble attempt to turn the
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tables.
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To the dismay of any post-feminists hoping this will show men just
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how lousy it feels to be a sex object, men may well find the scenario
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amusing or even flattering.
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The ad is not guilty of reverse sexism. There is only sexism,
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period, and it has always worked two ways. The same sexism that denies
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the full humanity of women also denies the full humanity of men.
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While we have made some progress on behalf of women, sexism against
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men is so ubiquitous and deep that we must break profound taboos even to
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suggest that it exists. And here is where public radio failed us, in
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railing against silly old Sansabelt: There is nothing very sexist about
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a woman sizing up a guy's physical contours; in a way, it's kind of
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refreshing.
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True sexism against men is far more subtle, and the woman doing it
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isn't looking at the front of anybody's pants: She's checking out the
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bulge of the wallet in back. Just as sexism reduces women to sexual
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objects, it reduces men to financial objects. Just as woman have been
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exploited as sexual and emotional commodities, men are exploited as cogs
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in the economic machinery, expendable war fodder, and providers who must
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never fail. For every two guys discussing a particular girl's physical
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charms, there are two girls discussing a particular guy's career
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prospects.
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For too long we have approached sexism as a problem caused by men,
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to be solved by women. It is neither. We all create it, and we are the
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only ones who can cure it.
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No wonder the subject is taboo: Once we face the problem and the
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pain, we're going to have to do something about it. And if you think
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there was hell to pay when women raised the first flag of non-
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cooperation (Death of the family! No more babies! Extinction of the
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species!), wait until men finally decide to chuck the moneyclips and
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claim their full humanity: Economic disaster! Political and social
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chaos! Goodbye global security! Despite the alarms, we've weathered the
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first uprising with families and babies to spare.
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The outcome of the next anybody's guess, but one thing is sure: The
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men who raise the flag of their non-cooperation will have the attention
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of the female species, and they won't have to wear Sansabelts to get it.
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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Bowen lives in northwestern Montana.
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