Vocal feminist Jennifer Lawrence.
I keep hearing this constant siren song about equality. We need more female engineers. More female directors. Women should not have to wear revealing clothing at a major feature film audition for the role of Hot Chick. You shouldn’t say someone ‘runs like a girl’ or ‘throws like a girl’, because women can throw just as well as men even though everyone knows that by and large this is patently untrue.
Do not tell a woman at work that she looks nice today, you fucking rapist creep. Being a promiscuous woman is a bold political statement. Female athletes don’t make the same amount of money as male athletes even though nobody goes to their games. Your male professor is Mansplaining something to you which he has a doctorate in, what a dick. Tampons should be tax free. Being morbidly obese makes you not only beautiful, but powerful now.
Here’s something I haven’t heard mentioned:
In American society right now, when a man and a woman are dating and have been flirting with the idea of marriage, the man must purchase an expensive piece of jewelry, preferably encrusted with diamonds, and then get down on one knee and present it to the woman while asking for her approval or denyal.
The more gaudy the piece of jewelry, the more impressive it is to the woman’s friends, and the more special she feels, because she is superficial and also hyper-competitive with other women.
Or she just supports the diamond trade. Either way, lame.
While certainly sexist in regard to men, this custom also serves to subvert the woman, casting her as a prize, an entity which must be claimed, the ring basically being a form of dowry to the woman herself instead of her father.
It’s a down payment.
I wonder why this archaic practice goes unremarked upon in discussions regarding gender equality. Is it because it benefits women? Nobody is ever going to complain about getting free shit. If you tell me how hard my life is I will gladly lap it up. This leads to more free shit. It’s not quantum physics.
But let’s be honest.
We’ve long ago done away with the notion that the wife shouldn’t hold down a job or should have dinner waiting for the husband when he returns home.
Gone is the idea that a woman shouldn’t be the CEO of a company or the President of the United States.
Vocal feminist Natalie Portman wearing a ridiculous looking engagement ring.
And yet, if we hypothetically had a female President, and she was single, and she and the male Undersecretary of Agriculture got into a hot and heavy relationship, the Undersecretary of Agriculture would find it incumbent on him to buy the President a ring worth 1-3 months of his comparatively measly salary, submit to the President on one knee, and ask her if they could be married, risking humiliation if she said no.
I find this interesting.
I was at a friend’s bar recently, which I won’t name, and he has a rule that if a woman walks in and there are no seats available, the man must offer her his seat.
While a pathetic attempt on his part to come off as a knight in shining armor to his mostly female staff, all of whom he hired and are attractive, I said to him, I will not be doing that.
Forgive me all of your stupid emails in which you miss the point and attack me. I’m not angry. I could frankly not care any less about this entire situation. I’m just pointing out that’s it’s a double standard, and a sexist one at that. And, further:
There is no socially accepted custom right now that is as sexist as that of an engagement ring. In a mutual contract, one gender must make a substantial monetary purchase for the other, and it is not reciprocated.
The standard estimate for the average price of an engagement ring is $4,000. Factor that into the gender pay gap please.
Equal pay crusader Venus Williams and her engagement ring she didn’t pay for.
That isn’t to say that women don’t suffer the brunt of most sexism. Although, they don’t consider their entitled expectation towards being given a valuable piece of jewelry to be sexist, so maybe the numbers are skewed.
The concept of an engagement ring isn’t even considered sexist. I’ve never even heard it brought up. That’s how far we’ve come.
The fact is that women will never have true equality until they forfeit the right to pick and choose the sexism that benefits them and the sexism that doesn’t.
So, women, the next time you’re complaining about something inane and trivial, such as Jennifer Lawrence’s salary on an indi movie, or that your boss asked you to smile at a client, please realize that the most egregious vestige of sexism still socially accepted benefits none other than you.
And yes, I have heard women complain about these exact topics while wearing engagement rings.
Sillies.