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Despite the advancement of women and feminist movements all over the world, some things are hard to change. Sexism for example is seen in all form of media. It even proliferated because of the advancement of technology. Gender insensitive comments now go viral in the internet causing damages against women and other gender orientations. The feminist movements however are not silent on the attacks as they are using the technology to critique insensitive statements and comments. Despite the set-back of internet against the women’s movement, it also favoured the movement in advancing its campaigns to end sexism that includes gender stereotypes and disempowerment of women and other genders.
In this moment, I would like to share some of the sexist advertisements, comments, photos and articles that go against gender and suggest an alternative presentation in a gender perspective. In one blog entitled “Crazy, Lazy, Silly and Strange,” a photo of a man clad in a three-piece suit, sitting with legs crossed, reading a newspaper. There was nothing wrong about the photo but the caption above it says, “Where is my fucking sandwich?” Once you read the caption, the thing that enters your mind is the stereotypes in gender roles. The caption says it all. It states that women are bound to serve men. In a gender perspective, the photo is best captioned with “I read news every morning with a coffee I brew myself.”
In Buzz Feed, they published an article that presented 22 sexist comments that women hear in the workplace. One photo displays a beautiful young woman in corporate attire sitting and wearing a smile. It was however captioned with “I can’t promote you because I think the men will find it difficult to accept a young and beautiful woman an authority figure.” It shows the common struggles of women in the workplace in terms of power, participation and equal opportunities. The society still look at women in a box of gender stereotyped roles. Women often land to jobs that are considered soft including secretarial work, executive assistant among others. Men on the other hand always land to power. Men are perceived to having the capacity to govern and to command. As a result, they are always elected as leaders of labor unions, promoted to managerial positions among others. In the perspective of a feminist, the reason for the failure of promotion is unacceptable. The grounds can be a labor case. However, if the young woman is not yet in capacity for the promotion, the caption would be “I am sorry to tell you that I cannot promote you as you still need trainings for the available position. I believe you are a promising and intelligent young woman and you can apply for the position in the future.”
One of the event advertisements posted in the internet has a sexist come on. The event is a jam in Boston and one of the perks offered are beautiful women serving beers for those who will attend the jam. Statement like this makes it appear that the civilization is still stuck in the Stone Age. Despite the many awareness campaigns on women’s rights, many people still linger in the age where men are more powerful than women. It is disheartening to observe that humanity has not step forward when it comes to women empowerment and gender equality. Given a chance to change the event advertisement, it would be nice to put self-service rather than young women serving beers.
Another cartoon picked on women who are having biological issues. A character in the said cartoon who is a man is talking boastfully to a woman regarding how men can enjoy their drinking while women keep on worrying about their hormonal and biological problem. This is an insensitive cartoon strip as it did not recognize the fact that despite the biological and hormonal problems of women, they had been working more than the men can do in managing the household and even in contributing significantly in development. If we can change the cartoon strip, It would be nice to put a dialogue for the female stating how lazy and underworked men can be that they can afford to drink scotch and women after eight hours of work can still exert extra effort to look after the children and prepare food for their husbands.
One ridiculous signage stated: “Male: No Shirt, No Service; Female: No Shirt, Free Beer.” Feminist would likely to enter the bar and shout at the manager to take down the signage. The signage only fuels the rage among the feminist movements. It escalates the female objectification that has been running from time immemorial. A nicer signage can be “No shirt, No service.” In that manner, the double standard will be eradicated.
Speaking of objectification of women, there is one blog that posted an Asian woman wearing a provocative dress and seductively smiling at the camera. In her hands is a ball pressed in front of her stomach. She is leaning down so the body curves are showing. The caption states that the woman is provocatively wiggling her buttocks. It is unimaginable that in the 21st century objectification is everywhere in the media. A most appropriate caption would be stating what the woman is doing accurately. The young woman looks like a sales lady and she is probably doing some promotional activity.
Moreover, in the big magazines in America and elsewhere in the world, cover photos are always photos of nude or barely dressed popular women. The media is not stepping forward. It always suits what the men needs in order that the magazine will be bought on street and advertisement will bombard their glossy papers. It will mean more money for them. However, it will mean women objectification and oppression. One example is Maxim’s cover photo featuring Kirsten Bell.
One of America’s worst displays of sexism was when Hillary Clinton ran during the presidential elections. Newscasters on radio talked about her as weak, too emotional and her femininity is not suitable for a leader of the country. She was even heckled by men and women during rallies. They were shouting, “iron my shirt, Hillary.” It only showed that America unlike other countries cannot tolerate women in power. If America is sensitive on women empowerment, they could have encouraged Hilary and gave her a chance to show her worth as a candidate.
One of the sexism that women encounter every day on the streets is men shouting “slut” after women ignore their whistles and other flirty advances. This is even worse if the women are African-American or Asian-American. They would shout sexist and racist name calls. In a better world, sexist and racist name calls should be prohibited by law.
On the other hand, Facebook is full of sexist, racist and other forms of intolerance posts. One of the sexist post that received criticisms from the internet society is from a Facebook user picking on women who are posting their single relationship status on February. The Facebook user even stated that no men posted that they are single on a Valentine’s Day. Facebook should have a sexist detector to automatically delete sexist posts.
Maxim magazine is again giving an irate to feminist around the world for their article published entitled “Cure a Feminist.” The magazine has four easy steps to cure a protesting vegan feminist. It showed a photo that illustrates how a feminist turns into a girl. The photo alone says millions of anti-women sentiments. The cured woman in the photo is wearing an alluring under garments compared to the uncured woman who wears her under-arm hair long and looking like a hippie. It is maxim’s sexism, objectification, and stereotype article at its worst. In The future, there should be a legislation that will prohibit publishing articles and photos like that.
References
Walton, MC. (2010). “Various Sexist and Offensive Things”. Crazy, Lazy, Silly and Strange. Retrieved from http://crazylazysilly.blogspot.com/2010/10/various-sexist-offensive-things.html
Yandoli, K.L. (2014). “22 Terribly Sexist Comments Women Have Heard at Work.” Buzz Feed. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/krystieyandoli/terribly-sexist-comments-women-have-heard
Flanagan, M. (2014). “Sexist comments cartoons 3of 6.” Cartoon Stock. Retrieved from http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/sexist_comments.asp
“Boston API Jam.” Storify. Retrieved from https://storify.com/techladymafia/boston-api-jam-s-marketing-problem
Friedman, Lynn. (2012). “Feminism Friday: Sexism and Students.” Rarely Wears Lipstick. Retrieved from http://www.rarelywearslipstick.com/2012/10/feminism-friday-sexism-and-students/
Xinhua. (2014). “Wiggling her Buttocks Provocatively.” The Sexist Standard: Coconuts HongKong. Retrieved from http://hongkong.coconuts.co/2014/08/28/nsfw-low-standards-15-most-outrageously- sexist-photo-captions-standard-hong-kong
Sanner, E. (2013). “Top 10 sexist moments in politics: Julia Gillard, Hillary Clinton and more.” The Guardian. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jun/14/top-10-sexist-moments-politics
Malone, A. (2013). “9 Examples Of Everyday Sexism.” BuzzFeed. Retrieved from http://www.buzzfeed.com/ailbhemalone/19-examples-of-everyday-sexism
“Facebooksexism.” Tumblr. Retrieved from https://www.tumblr.com/search/sexism+spotted+on+Facebook
Waylon, L. (2012). “Meanwhile, In Maxim: How to Cure a Feminist in 4 Easy Steps.” Elephant Journal. Retrieved from http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/03/meanwhile-in-maxim-how-to-cure-a-feminist-in-4-easy-steps/
