House of Eratosthenes

People will see this cover, without even reading the story, as I haven’t yet, and conclude everything is fabulous for women. It’s not. Stats at the top have not changed for women. People in power across the board– business, politics, media, doctors, law, art– are men.

The spin on this article is pretty brilliant. From the cover, you can tell it’s not going to be that “women are achieving so much, so fast that males are the ones who need support.” No, it’s going to be that “women are achieving so much so fast, getting so very rich, becoming richer than men, and that’s good for men!” That way, feminists are supposed to be grateful for Time’s piece and somehow not notice that a national news magazine’s cover is actually referring to women as the richer sex. WTF?

Well, I haven’t read the Time article either. But I’ve read Margot’s work for awhile now, and while I think she is to be congratulated on giving-a-damn about what kinds of messages are being sent to her daughters and doing something about it — wish more parents would — I do see a rather narrow concentration on the demographics of the hallways and offices of power. There are corporate board rooms, corner offices, business partners, owners of sole proprietorships, executives, legislators, and others. And from what I can see, once such “mahogany rows” are defined, and their populations broken down, if the male statistic is any higher than 48% then Margot is an unhappy camper, and you can count on a blistering screed from the ReelGirl site within a day or two. But ya know…I’m not quite sure that’s the measurement to be applied.

Also, I’ve heard the arguments that say women are way behind, and I’ve heard the opposing arguments that it’s the men who are getting screwed right now. Seems to me they talk past each other. Both sides could be right in the fact that they present, completely right, which means they aren’t really locking horns like they think they are. Are the executives, legislators, equity holders, other decision makers much more likely to be men? Absolutely yes. Is a male baby, born today, much more likely to be financially successful than his female counterpart? Ehm…let’s just say I’m doubtful about it.

Will that female counterpart be deluged with advertising messages designed to keep her down, insulted, deflated, trod-upon…lowering her vision of herself…more than the male? No, absolutely not. It is possible, mind you, that what she does see will have a more pronounced effect upon her behavior. Guys have an ability to shrug that stuff off. Relatively speaking, anyway. Think about the writhing and whining and hand-wringing about “unhealthy body images in advertising” you’ve heard about, over the last ten or twenty years. Now imagine I’m wrong about the guys being tougher and less sensitive…let’s say I’m completely mistaken, and the blokes are equally susceptible…look at a replica of Action Comics #1 from 1938, look at Superman’s body, the slightly soft-n-squishy wrestler’s build. Compare to a more modern version, something from the John Byrne reboot in the 1980’s. Or a Doug Hazelwood Superman. I rest my case. There’s a noticeable change here, it isn’t doing the lads any psychological harm, or if it is, nobody gives a flying fig about it. But it’s probably not having the effect people are talking about with the gals.

Show Her It's a Man's World As I pointed out in Margot’s comment thread, there is no perceptible statistical skew taking place right now — unless I’ve missed something? — with gentlemen winning elections more often than the ladies. Therefore, if men are outnumbering women in Congress five to one, you’ll have to take it up with the women who are deciding not to run. I don’t know what’s going on there and I can’t speak for them. Maybe they saw Kate Beckinsale or Keira Knightley running around in some undergarments, and got all put off by it. Seriously, members of Congress are frequently made to look ridiculous…and they should. It happens to everyone in a position of power. Well, that inspires one level of revulsion in potential male candidates, and a whole different level in females. Women don’t like being made to look silly. Eh, it’s just one explanation. Makes sense to me.

There’s also the magnitude, or perhaps I should say the intensity, of the ridicule to be considered. Remember the last time a man was the subject of as vicious and vociferous a hate campaign, as what was directed toward Sarah Palin? Me neither. Uh, by the way, who did that? Any of the feminists, and their male sympathizers, who are now complaining about inadequate female representation in these hallways of power? The lack of self-awareness that would have to be involved in any membership overlap, it would be absolutely breathtaking and stunning. And yet. I do think there’s overlap. Gonna go out on a limb and just guess that there is some.

But back to the “perspective” mentioned in the title. I see there’s an article about the glossy magazine advertisements of days gone by; its appearance is apropos, and timely. Spaking her right in the ass because she bought the wrong kind of coffee. And in the bygone days of those crappy percolators, hah! Keep her where she belongs…put her in her place…wifey as an animal-skin rug with his foot on her pretty head. Oh, my. You’ve come a long way baby.

Perspective is a wonderful thing. It’s refreshing…like having a beautiful woman serve you breakfast in bed. Perhaps, the solution to whatever problem that can be defined here — and I’m not convinced there is one — is not quite so much to filter out the messages that are aimed at impressionable females, but to take a closer look on how they choose to react to the messages. In fact, maybe that’s why the men aren’t quite so easily bruised and dented; in our world, after a few years of growing up, you need to start taking it as a given that any & all “messages,” be they spoken or be they printed, are not necessarily for you. I see there are some women who’ve figured that out as well…but on Planet Man, it is a requirement for survival. It’s basic. You go on those outings, in which five of you are someone well-adjusted socially and then you have that one jackass whose momma never told him no? There’s one in every crowd, it seems. Well, on Planet Man…this is something even the runt of the litter knows. Four out of five of us know you don’t double-dip, four out of five of us know you bring a towel when you bench press in a gym — but five of five who’ve survived to adulthood, get this one thing. Everything said is not intended for, nor does it have meaning for, every man. That’s one of the important reasons why we have bullying — any maturing lads who go through life with that “it’s all about me, me, me” thing, get bullied until they drop it.

Well…looking at the current White House occupant, I guess I’d have to admit there are some exceptions.

But by and large, this is a baseline requirement in the Man’s corner of the universe. And it’s one of the few things we do right. If we want to reach manhood and keep all our wits about us, we have to catch on that sometimes, a message is sent by one, received by another, and we are bystanders having not a single thing to do with any of it…therefore, if we’re offended, well, too bad so sad. Tomorrow’s another day. It’s a good lesson for everyone. What basket cases we’d be if we shouldered the burden of finding some meaning, for ourselves, out of every little thing. Three headache reliever commercials in which the husband’s using Brand X and the wifey is using something better, we’d be ready for the looney bin.

Therefore, if men are outnumbering women in Congress five to one, you’ll have to take it up with the women who are deciding not to run.

I think it has more to do with the observation that the majority of women who want to enter national politics…are simply too liberal to appeal to a broad voter demographic. Think about it. Except for Jan Brewer, Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin, how many nationally-known conservative female politicians can you name? Of those three, how many are known by people who aren’t conservative political junkies and Fox News watchers?

Now, how many liberal ones can you name? Case closed.

Shortly after Clinton was elected, I remember some reporter asked him when America would have a female president. He blathered on for a minute or two about how he hoped it would happen in his lifetime. Rush Limbaugh still had his TV show at the time, and he answered the question himself even though it wasn’t directed to him. He said, “When one runs that the people like enough to elect.” Shortly thereafter, someone made the observation I mentioned above. Conservative political women were even rarer in the early 90s than they are now.

Actually, women being so badly outnumbered in Congress, statehouses, and governorships dovetails nicely into the liberal feminist narrative that women (like minorities, gays, members of minority faiths, and anyone else who isn’t a middle-aged WASP male, apparently) can’t get a fair shake in this world. The glass ceiling, the 70 cents to the man’s dollar, and all that other shit that never seems to go away.
- cylarz | 04/07/2012 @ 01:55

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent

Items of Interest

Monthly Archives

What They Say

Links

Perspective for the LadiesSaturday, March 24th, 2012

Perspective for the Ladies
Saturday, March 24th, 2012