I found this calendar on the clearance rack at my Barnes and Noble today. What words could I use to describe it? Disgusting? Ridiculous? Insulting? I am at a loss, so I'll resort to sarcasm.
See, women's hearts are in the right place and men, well, we know the only thing they think about ;)
Men are losers, it's just that simple.
Boys are just like animals (it is soooo distressing to us girls!)
Boys, better seen than heard.
Dudes = ZERO, get it?
Sigh... so sorry boys, even in my most generous and helpful nature and superior wisdom I can't help you fix your stupidity.
Maybe boys aren't better seen than heard....I crack myself up!
Boys should be under a chick's control! (and buy me jewelry!)
You're so pathetic even begging won't help!
Short = less, don't you know?
Boys, so helpless with the all important fashion.
Make yourself useful and spend money on me!I looked, and there was no "DUDES RULE" version, not that I thought there actually would be. That would be misogynist don'cha know!
16 comments:
Learner,
You made my point for me; if the roles were reversed, why there'd be a HUE & CRY about how sexist it is! Ah, but since it's chicks doing it, well that's okay...
MarkyMark
Hi MarkyMark,
I was actually embarassed to buy it (it was only a few dollars or I would not have). I think it also paints women in a bad light (spend money on me, beg me etc...), though I doubt the person who put it together sees that.
Probably the designer for it was:
a) Woman under 30
or b) woman-firster male under 40.
Anakin,
It certainly comes off as quite immature.
By the way, thanks for the link :)
I can take a joke. I'm not so stuck on myself that stuff like this gets to me personally.
My problem comes with the observation that this isn't funny ha-ha to women. There are quite a few who do take it seriously and do harbor feelings such as this.
Men get self-deprecating humor. I don't think women do. Can you imagine the outcry had the sexes in this calendar been reversed?
I hope you bought it on clearance.
EW,
Yes, it was on clearance :)
I believe that you are right that there are some women who would take it not as funny, but rather as their real thoughts.
For me too, it's not just that the calendar was produced, it's that it was available for sale in Barnes & Noble.
i was raised in a home like this. my parents were/are messed up. after their divorce last year, my mom sent me an email with triple x in the subject line - i deleted it. it was all sick jokes about men.
my sister talks like this, too.
needless to say, i stick out in my family. they try to pull this stuff around me, but i don't let it fly.
Ame,
I know women like this too, which is why I think it isn't funny.
Learner: I can't say I'm nearly as offended for the guys as I am for the gals.
I mean we have Christian women who are fighting pretty hard to convince the men that the feminist stereotypes are wrong, and yet the calendar only provides cannon fodder for those stereotypes.
Many will find that funny, but I doubt those same people would be amused if we had an "It's a Man's World" calendar, with a patriarchy-on-steroids theme for every month.
I'll say this - that calendar is so spot-on in its description of American women it could serve as an autobiography for each one of them.
Amir,
I agree it does cast women in a bad light. I think that you seem to be pretty good at letting things slide off your back and not bother you (a skill I need to work on!), so I understand that this sort of thing would not personally insult you. I just think this kind of thing is sad because it serves to drive the wedge between men and women, and that is the work of Satan.
MS,
it could serve as an autobiography for each one of them
Each one? Do you really think each American woman is really like the calendar implies or are you engaging in hyperbole? You don't know even one woman who is not like this calendar implies?
Exactly one woman under the age of 50.
I notice a trend in your rebuttals of my points. You are so intent on finding the single exception in order to "disprove" my assertions. It's like a security blanket (quilt?) for you. Sed contra, most of the land area of a minefield is actually free of mines, but only fools and the ignorant wander in.
MS,
I notice a trend in your points; namely, that you have a tendency to engage in hyperbole at times. If you had said it could serve as an autobiography for many women I would not have asked the question. It is the absolute in your point that begs the question and makes your statement, by your own admission (Exactly one woman under the age of 50.), patently false. That is the problem with hyperbole.
A security blanket (or quilt...he he good one!) for me? Perhaps it is, but not in the way you likely think it is. I have had the unfortunate experience of having innacurate assumptions made about me as a woman, by a man, that resulted in my physical injury. So, yes, it does matter to me personally that men (not just you, but men in general) not all assume that ALL women are any one particular way.
Not assuming all women are like the women parodied in the calendar does not mean that you have to have anything to do with women. That is your right to choose. I choose to pay a guy to get up on a ladder and clean out my gutters because even though it is not certain that I would fall off the ladder, the risk is still too great for me (I'm a tad accident prone). Why do you need to believe that all women are a certain way to decide that it is not worth the risk for you? (this is not a rhetorical question...I am genuinely curious)
Learner says on February 4, 2009 5:48 PM:
Why do you need to believe that all women are a certain way to decide that it is not worth the risk for you?
I respond:
I reached my own conclusions a long time ago. What I write online now, I write for other men.
I present such views in that way that I do because they are simplifying assumptions. Simplifying assumptions make life so much easier and smoother as long as the assertion is statistically true.
In my case, I have met, as I said, precisely one woman under 50 who isn't an Entitlement Princess. So, why should I not approach life as if every woman under 50 that I meet is an Entitlement Princess until definitively proven otherwise?
You see, I am out to get this message to men, to prevent men from getting hurt. I simply don't care so much about protecting women - they have Big Daddy Government, Family Court, Women's Programs, and Sexual Harassment laws looking out for them. Men have only themselves and their wits.
MS,
I don't think you really answered my question. Nothing you said would change if instead of saying it was every woman you said it was many women or even most women. You could still warn men that you believe it isn't worth the risk. So, why the hyperbole? Surely you don't believe that men are incapable of understanding the actual truth rather than a simple assumption. Since your assumption is based on your observations it can hardly be considered to be statistical in nature any more than my observations would be considered statistical in nature.
So, why should I not approach life as if every woman under 50 that I meet is an Entitlement Princess until definitively proven otherwise?
I'm not saying you shouldn't, that is your choice. However, what would be the harm in treating women like individuals and not assuming anything about them at all, either good or bad?
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