I know this may piss off the pathologically PC (I can only hope) so I apologize to those who come here for the peace and quiet but I must say this. A sentence I would very much like to never have to hear or read again is, “You wouldn’t ask a man that question.”
News flash: men and women are different. Always will be. Get over it. Yes, women are just as capable as men of performing well in positions of power and responsibility. Women are also just as capable as men of being wiseass jerks. You want to talk about equality? There it is. You can’t own the positive without also owning the negative.
And you know something else? You never hear a man say, “You wouldn’t ask a woman that question.” I’ve heard interviewers ask the President about sports. I’ve never heard him respond, “You wouldn’t ask a woman that question.” You want to be treated the same as a man in your position would be, then don’t act like such a “typical woman.” Be professional.
I’m not saying you should necessarily answer every question. Reporters are notorious for asking inappropriate, irrelevant and just plain lame questions but people are interested in the personal lives of our leaders and since men and women are different that means different questions for men and women. If you don’t feel that it’s an appropriate time for a particular question the better response would be to say, “I would rather talk about the issues,” or “I would rather talk about [a specific issue]“. That’s how a man – or a truly professional woman – would handle the situation.
August 14th, 2012 - 11:14 pm
Okay, what exactly is this big difference between men and women that means it’s okay to fixate on a woman’s appearance while men get all the questions about their ambitions? I can tell you right now that there’s an “F” on my driver’s license but if a reporter asked me who my “preferred clothing designer” was I’d have to tell him whoever printed out the patterns they use in the Chinese factories that supply Walmart. Is it the baby thing? Because I’ve never had a baby yet I still don’t think I’m a man.
And of course no man would say “you wouldn’t ask a woman” a sports question, because sports is still considered a guy thing, and all those women into sports are just playing with guy things, the way we are when we do anything that isn’t tied directly to our private home lives. Deep down inside of the culture — not necessarily in all people in it, but in the culture — is the thought: “She’ll get over it. She’ll stop this silly tomboy act and quit working in the office and stop running for president and go back to her proper role.” Until we root out this thought — as well as quit restricting men to their “proper” roles as breadwinner and protector who gets “distinguished” instead of “old” as he gets older, we’re not going to do anything but spin in circles.
And I’ll vote for the first man who has the balls to say “I don’t follow sports, sorry.”
August 15th, 2012 - 8:13 am
And I’d vote for the same guy, Andrea (it’ll never happen though; I think a male politician is as likely to say he doesn’t follow sports as he is to confess to atheism).
I don’t follow sports and take it from me — men (at least the non-sports men) are just as tired of the “How about them Dodgers” stuff as women are of the presumptuous questions they get. But in both cases the presumptions are based on perceived averages. As Lynn says, men and women are different, duh. (The real problem is that most people are uncomfortable with exceptions.)
When Hillary said “Would you ever ask a man that question?” the moderator should have simply said, “No.” But that could never happen either…
August 16th, 2012 - 1:29 pm
I don’t follow sports either.
But I know plenty of women who are addicted to watching tennis at Wimbledon, or my sister and her daughters, who will travel many a mile to events where people on horses jump over things.
August 16th, 2012 - 1:40 pm
Oh. And I’ll never run for office either.
I’ve been both an artist and a hairy-armed* mechanic, I’ve dug ditches and written poetry.
My father, who worked in the weaving industry all his life, with a brief break to fight a war, sneered at Armani, and called his products ‘Poorly made rubbish with a name to appeal to ignorant fools’.
My mother who made her own wedding dress out of illicitly obtained parachute-silk used to say ‘labels are for people who don’t know how to judge worth for themselves.”
She’d begged her brother for ages to try get her a parachute. He did. Faithful but clueless, if she’d trusted only in him, the wedding dress would have been khaki.
*word redacted here. Please insert more apt epithet.