An advert for pantyhose displayed on
large
billboard posters and in bus
shelters
in Sydney Australia,
November 1998-January 1999
A woman responded to this sexist male page, describing the same day from a female perspective.
A Day in the Feminist Life
Have you ever wondered why it is that in a patriarchal society women's achievements, misshaps, issues and complaints always seem to get star billing. And female columnists make a regular point of chiding those silly hopeless men. When viewed systematically, it turns out that the occasional article bolstering women's self-esteem is really part of a wall of feminist sound.
Here is a single day entry from my diary to indicate that our minds are being 'cleansed' from dawn to dusk.
6.30am: The radio alarm wakes me up. The news bulletin is already running an interview with a female political commentator who is discussing women's participation in politics. The bulletin enters my mind subliminally, before I am fully conscious.
See Senator Amanda Vanstone on 5.1.99 Parliamentary New Network, on 'sex slave' trade, penalties of 15 year prison term for 'enslaving' illegal immigrant women as prostitutes.
6.50am: The radio is still playing. Now an item about a plan to build the world's tallest building in Melbourne Australia. A feminist-aware male academic describes it as:
"It's just a boy's game, mine is bigger than yours, played out in the urban environment"
(Radio interview with Associate Professor Kim Duffy, Uni of Melbourne, on Grollo Tower, late 1998)
7.20am: I get up and read the morning paper. According to an article on page 10: "Women's hopes of a real life dashed" in Iraq due to the UN sanctions.
"Although eight years of sanctions on Iraq have devastated the entire society, women have suffered most acutely."
(Sydney Morning Herald, Monday December 28, 1998)
Women in Iraq find it hard to find eligible men to marry and this somehow only affects the women. Wouldn't men find it equally difficult? No mention is made of men's forced recruitment into the military.
7.40am: In the entertainment section of the newspaper I look at what movies are being shown. Maybe I shouldn't see Antz. It's just patriarchal propaganda. According to the newspaper review:
"Real ant society, quite unlike that in the movie, is almost exclusively female, with just a few chronically layabout males."
(Sydney Morning Herald Saturday, december 26, 1998)
I suppose it would be foolish of me to mention that the ant colony is headed by a layabout queen?
7.50am: More News on films:
"Three trends transformed popular entertainment in 1998...1) Girl Power; 2) The Grossout; and 3) The Mature Eccentric Woman. It was the year the purveyors of mass culture had to start paying attention to females aged 15 to 25...The boys meanwhile stayed home to play computer games and watch violent or vulgar videos."
Summer Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Friday January 1, 1999, I know what girls like
I wish it were true. My girlfriend is always hogging the Playstation Colin Macrae Rally game. That's when she's not playing my Tekken III.
8.00am: As the news is all a little boring I decide to read my Bicycle magazine. There's no chance of feminism invading the subject of cycling is there? No way.
The author of a feature article in the magazine points out that men do much more driving in European countries which therefore proves that women have less access to transport and are therefore oppressed. While men drive, women are forced to walk or cycle...and do the shopping, pick up the kids, do the washing and ironing.
"This daily juggling of various tasks involves many extra trips and makes everyday life rather complex."
No wonder women have problems just operating the video recorder. What is her conclusion?
"We need more female planners, architects, politicians, scientists, who guarantee that our built environment no longer prioritises the employed man with briefcase, going to work during rush hour."
According to Ursula Lehner-Lierz, cycling consultant and Vice President of European Cyclists' Federation in Australian Cyclist December 1998-January 1999: 26.
Well in Australia 90% of cyclists are male. What is the reason? There I was thinking it's because women hate to show their fat arses on bicycle seats.
8.30am: I walk to the bus stop and the poster at the bus shelter is defaced. It had an advert for women's underwear showing a beautiful woman in lingerie. It now has the words 'objectification of women' scrawled over it.
8.55am: As I walk from the bus station to work I see thousands of people rushing to their offices. The women are in a variety of clothes but the men all wear dark suits. I look at their ties and all I can think of is flaccid penises.
9.00am: I am rushing to get to my dead end job as a clerk. Just before reaching the office someone hands me a free employment newspaper. The feature article is about the 'glass ceiling' which indicates women don't get promoted to the positions they deserve. Tell me about it!
(City Weekly newspaper, 1998)
10.00am: It's a busy day so the boss asks me to fetch a cappuccino from the cafe downstairs. I think to myself, If I were a woman I could refuse to do it. (Incidentally it was actually a 'megaccino' with two sugars.)
11.00am: While going to the toilet I notice two women from the pay office gossiping in the corridor.
Yes Virginia, there really is a
Feminist World Vision!
12.00am: Out to lunch. As I walk across the park to get a sandwich I see a road gang in the midday heat laying underground cables. One of the men...I mean workers, operates a giant jackhammer and sweats profusely. I walk into the cafe, order lunch and pull a newspaper from the rack. In the newspaper I see an article: Heroine Worship:
"I've always had this feeling that women's courage is far more dogged, determined and long-lasting than men's. Women had to be a lot smarter than men to succeed."Susanna De Vries, former lecturer at Queensland Uni, Sunday Life September 14, 1998, in Sun Herald
12.30pm: I come back from lunch. The two women from the pay office are still standing around gossiping as they seem to do every hour of the day. I wonder how they get away with it?
Perhaps this old item on Linda Tripp provides an insight: "has a love of office intrigue, sometimes playing off different officemates against each other and delighting in watercooler gossip, especially about the foibles of her bosses." Bulletin/Newsweek, Clinton and the Intern, February 1998: 47.
12.40am: When I get back to the office the woman who works across from me has pulled the window blinds up. It glares on my computer screen and gives me a headache. She does it deliberately. Ever since she asked me for a date and I politely declined she has found subtle ways to annoy me.
1.00pm: A photocopy circular from the office human resources staff about sexual harrassment arrives. A four page memo explains the way sexual harassment in the workplace is not acceptable and that women should be treated equally. For some peculiar reason it states almost ten times that Equal Opportunity policies do not discriminate against men.
1.30pm: I switch on my desk radio to get some music but the news bulletin is just on. A spokeswoman from a rape crisis centre talks about how the courts must give greater leeway to women's testimony in trials, with a reduced right for the women to be cross examined. It is followed by a report in which the Minister for Women claims women are cheated on car repairs and pay more for EVERYTHING.
2.30pm: The guy in the next bay has some movie posters on his partition wall. One is of Sharon Stone and the other is Mel Gibson. The female supervisor asks him to remove Sharon Stone as it may be construed as sexist. "What about the other poster?" he asks, in which Mel Gibson is semi-naked as a Highland warrior. "You had better get rid of that too, just to be fair" she replies.
3.00pm: One of the senior male consultants in the office is distressed. He has been accused of harassing one of the secretaries who has taken leave. He claims he had only put his hand on her shoulder as he does with other junior personnel.
4.00pm: There is a rumour going round that someone in IT has been sacked for sexual misconduct. He sent a lewd joke through the email which was seen by a nosy female staff member who took it personally.
5.00pm: Time to go home. Waiting at the bus shelter, I see on a pole a poster about a Women's film festival. Wimmin film makers are out there....doing it...etc. Grrrril Power. All funded by goverment grants.
5.10pm: I get on the bus but there is only one seat left. There is a woman my own age who gets on behind me and I let her take the seat. Was I being sexist? I feel unsure about that but I know that I have to stand for half an hour.
5.50pm: When I get home there is some mail in the letterbox. Oh great! Its my subscription to an obscure writer's journal. Here's a chance to read something that has nothing to do with sexual politics. On page 5 a full page article catches my attention. It's about poetry and a split between a supposed 'domestic' poetry and 'universal':
"There are any number of examples that can be used to illustrate the falsity of the dichotomy, such as the 'private' nature of sexual harassment in the workplace; the historical non-policing of domestic violence...the historical non-policing of masculine sexuality in the home (marital rape and child sexual abuse) versus the public appropriation of women's bodies for pornography in the name of freedom of speech and expression."
And so it goes on.
(News Write, the Newsletter of the NSW Writers Centre No. 78/Dec 98-Jan 99)
6.10pm: I might just check my email so I switch on my computer. A message appears from WEB SITE JOURNAL and the feature article is "What women want":
Well over half of today's new internet accounts are being snapped up by women. While stereotypically male computer nerds are transfixed by the latest flashy graphics their sisters are out cruising the web with a more practical eye. "Where do you want to go?" isn't a very meaningful question for women. Instead they're asking "what can this technology do for me today?"
Typically women use computers to get things done. For the most part they are unimpressed with web designers' bells and whistles. Juggling careers, relationships and families is difficult enough without having to download the latest browser plug-in just to get tomorrow's weather report.
Well if I didn't know any better I would have called that another exercise in female chauvenism. But then I do know better. Only men discriminate.
Vol.2, No.23 http://www.WebSiteJournal.com
6.30pm: My girlfriend will be home soon and she hates it if I am just lazing around. She's studying to be a lawyer and so she will want dinner on the table. She needs to go to her room to study afterwards.
6.50pm: When my girlfriend gets home she likes to relax for a while. She sits down in front of the television and watches the last part of a movieTwo Smoking Barrels.
How can you watch movies that are so violent? I ask her, as I vacuum under her feet. (Well I mean women have had to do the vacuuming for the last 2000 thousand years.)
7.30pm:She goes to her study and I decide to do the washing up after making dinner. (Well I mean women have had to do the washing up for the last 2000 thousand years!)
8.00pm: Alone, I decide to watch something completely banal on the TV with no feminist subtexts. How about JAG, the series about Navy detectives with mindless sexual tension similar to X-Files. The story line dwells on a theme of naval sexual harassment and the female lead turns to the male lead and says of a murdered character:
"she was using her sexual power to control him."
I thought only men do that. Maybe there's something on another channel.
8.10pm: I switch channel and find, 3rd Rock from the Sun (Dick proposes, Sunday January 7th, Ch. 7): She replies:
"Not every woman thinks her life is not complete until she meets the right man!"
Maybe there's something on another channel.
8.40pm: As I flick channels I notice an ad for NIKE running shoes. I wonder what they're selling this week. The ad copy reads something like:
"They say a girl who plays tennis is a lesbian. They say women in sport aren't worth watching. They say women's sport is only interesting when the women are half naked...."
9.00pm: I watch Ally McBeal. In this episode she and her girlfriend agree that men are complete pushovers. They do a mock seduction on a guy and then give him the flick. During the ad break there is a commercial for Radox Bath salts. After her bath the female character pushes her old boyfriend over the railing of her apartment. He falls 6 storeys, though unfortunately into a pool.
11.00pm: I go to bed and my girlfriend is already asleep. I try to put my arms around her but she pushes me away. Too tired. Anyway, she thinks men are only ever interested in ONE thing.
11.20pm: Girlfriend decides that she is horny and seduces me. Even though I am really tired she massages my boodifarra until it is aroused, though the mind is not. I am slightly peeved but I do my duty. (If I don't fuck her there will be hell to pay.) I spend 30 minutes stimulating her:
"Can't you get it right?!" she chides. "Harder...faster...that's it. No not there....here. No softer...I'm not a computer game....Take it easy with your tongue....more sensitive...Careful...did you wash your hands? Slowly...Slowly...Can you walk and chew gum at the same time or what?!"
11.50pm: I give up on my task and she is angry again but she goes to sleep. For a few minutes I wonder what good I am to her. What will happen we she gets a job in a big law firm and earns twice as much as me? Will I still be her vibrator with ears? I drift off to sleep with these worries.
12.20am: I get a sudden kick in the ribs and go flying out of the bed. "You're an insensitive pig!" she declares.
I go and sleep on the sofa.
Ahh well, tomorrow is another day... another feminist day.
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