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