I was minding my own business when I spied, out of the corner of my eye (because of course I wasn't reading anybody else's mail), the current copy of OH magazine in a colleague's inbox.
I thought it was Oprah's, at first. But no: This is Obesity Help's magazine. It is a women's magazine, because of course fat men do not need one.
Be that as it may, what got my attention was one of the articles listed on the cover, to wit, "Exercise Your Right to Bare Arms." Why, you may ask, does this irritate me?
Well. I'm glad you asked!
In the first place, how much comment has there been over the last few months about Ms. Obama's predilection for sleeveless dresses?
FLOTUSThis is a woman with an Ivy League education, an attorney, and we are supposed to all fixate on whether her clothes have sleeves or not? Puh-leeze. But yes, we are, and in turn we are all supposed to mimic her fashion sense and go sleeveless ourselves.
In the second place, can you (I mean, really: Can you?) imagine such a stupid article in, say, GQ? Or Esquire? That alone qualifies it as sexist.
But mainly, now that a woman's right to exercise choice is being threatened (again), now that we have Hillary Clinton serving as Secretary of State and Sonia Sotomayor nominated for the Supreme Court, it's time for the press to remind us all of what's really important: Those flabby upper arms!
Reminds me of those stupid "Every Woman Needs a Platform to Speak From" shoe (get it? platform shoes?) ads they ran back when Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate. Trivializes the hell out of our real political ambitions and concerns. Insults our intelligence: You know those silly women--all they can think about is shoes (and sleeves).
I blame the patriarchy.
In the second place, can you (I mean, really: Can you?) imagine such a stupid article in, say, GQ? Or Esquire? That alone qualifies it as sexist.
But mainly, now that a woman's right to exercise choice is being threatened (again), now that we have Hillary Clinton serving as Secretary of State and Sonia Sotomayor nominated for the Supreme Court, it's time for the press to remind us all of what's really important: Those flabby upper arms!
Reminds me of those stupid "Every Woman Needs a Platform to Speak From" shoe (get it? platform shoes?) ads they ran back when Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate. Trivializes the hell out of our real political ambitions and concerns. Insults our intelligence: You know those silly women--all they can think about is shoes (and sleeves).
I blame the patriarchy.
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1 comment:
I've always understood that women's fashion was more abount intra-gender competition and less about men's preferences. I recognize that you're just using it as some sort of weak tagline mumbo jumbo but isn't blaming the patriarchy kind of inaccurate and misleading?
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