Friday, April 27, 2012

All Women Have Two Jobs, Apparently

I was reading an online article about a woman entrepreneur and when I got to the comments section, I decided to play a little game to see how many comments I could get through before someone mentioned her appearance. To be clear, this was not an ugly woman, this was not a beautiful woman, this was an average looking woman who was successful. Anyway, by the second comment someone was saying she had enough money to get a nose job. (I hadn't noticed her nose) The fourth comment said she was going to be hunted on Wild Kingdom or something like that. And the criticism went on from there. For some reason, no matter how successful or generous or wonderful a woman is, if she isn't beautiful, it makes men mad. Really mad. How-dare-she-be-on-this-planet,-living-her-life,-running-her-business-and-not-be-smoking-hot kind of mad. Even the most hideous, Jaba the Hut impersonator of a man somehow believes that it's a woman's job to look super hot for him all the time, apparently. I bet if I Googled Sister Theresa, I could find a never ceasing bunch of comment about how she wasn't all that good looking and she should have moisturized more while feeding the poor of Calcutta.

2 comments:

  1. My case in point, look how much has been in the "news" lately because Hilary Clinton hasn't been dolling up to do her job. Is she being judged on what she's accomplished? No. She's being judged because she isn't wearing makeup. I personally don't care, but from some of the irate comments out there, a lot of people obviously do. But men are never judged this way. Otherwise, Newt Gingrinch wouldn't be allowed to saunter around with that giant light bulb for a head without drawing national ire.

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  2. I now play a little game that whenever there is an article about a regular woman (non-celebrity), I make a bet with myself how many comments there will be before someone mentions her appearance. Usually it's within three posts. Sometimes they are all about her appearance even if that is in no way the point of the article.
    The worst as of late was about that poor woman fighting for her life against a flesh eating bacteria. She's had both her hands and feet amputated, yet most of the male posters seemed to be fascinated by discussing whether the disease has spread to her lady parts and if they could still have sex with her. I keep thinking a lot of these guys must have wives or girlfriends. Bet they don't want their posts getting around the office. The anonymity of the internet really has allowed a lot of people to release their inner pervert. Depressing.

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