Men. Can’t live with them. CAN live without them.
I’ve never viewed myself as a feminist, but this morning when I read Larry Lehmer’s blog post “Think it’s a man’s world? Think again,” I was immediately annoyed by his ending statement:
A world without men will do much more than upset the genealogical order of mankind. Car oil will go unchanged, bugs will go unkilled, sports will go unwatched and Viagra will go untaken.
As if women can’t be mechanics, touch insects, or be athletes. (I’ll ignore the Viagra comment.)
Then I thought about it some more. Playing the Devil’s advocate, and agreeing with him that women can’t do any of those things…
If those are the only things we lose if men weren’t around: non-electric cars, a world where insects are killed just for living near us, and where regularly scheduled programs are preempted in order to view people kicking/hitting/throwing a ball/puck around (okay, so I am one of those women who think sports are highly overrated), then I can’t say we do need men around.
On a different, but slightly related, note…
I’ve been reading some of Richard Scarry’s stories to my daughter recently, and I noticed a character named Frances. She is a female rabbit that is the town’s mechanic, fixing everyone else’s broken items. I keep waiting for a comedic point in the story that shows she isn’t as capable as we thought she was, and she needs a “man’s” help, but that never happens (at least in the stories I’ve read). That’s nice. It’s not often that I see a children’s book with a female character doing a “man’s job” and being successful. Especially when that book was written when I was a child.
“I keep waiting for a comedic point in the story that shows she isn’t as capable as we thought she was, and she needs a “man’s” help, but that never happens (at least in the stories I’ve read).”
Ouch. It’s sad that you’re looking for the sexism in these books and are surprised not to find any. Speaks a lot to the society we live in.
Also, I find it really interesting that this started off with “I’ve never viewed myself as a feminist.” I’m always kind of baffled by women who seem to associate feminism with something other than the simple concept that women are (and should be treated and viewed as) equals. How can an intelligent, sound-minded woman not see herself and other women as equal to men?
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May 7th, 2008 at 5:02 pmOh, I do see myself and other women as equal to men. I just don’t normally bitch about it. I see a “feminist” as someone who is constantly bitching about the inequality.
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May 7th, 2008 at 8:17 pm“I see a “feminist” as someone who is constantly bitching about the inequality.”
That is in and of itself buying into the sexist view of feminism, projecting your own personal imagined image of a feminist onto a word with a definition has nothing to do with “bitching.”
I really am surprised that women still actually think that and that it’s something you would actually still think. I guess it’s evidence that women are (in a lot of ways) still buying into their own male-created image.
/feminist rant
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May 7th, 2008 at 8:26 pmI’m not sure I “buy into” anything, as you say. At least I hope I don’t. I try to make my opinions based on my own experiences and what I see.
I think my views stem mainly from family experience instead of any male projected view. When I think of the ultimate feminist, I think of my great-grandmother. While she was, on one hand, a very kind loving person, she could also turn into quite a bitch, especially when it concerned feminist issues.
That said, I know that not all feminists are bitches, it unfortunatley just seems that way a lot of the time.
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May 8th, 2008 at 8:41 am