Have you ever noticed that when someone doesn’t like something a woman says, they will quite often be derogatory about her looks? Why criticize a woman’s looks or her appearance? It’s got nothing what so ever to do with what she is saying.
Let’s just go to the public arena for a moment, if a man says something that people don’t like, they’ll blast him, sure, but they don’t turn around and say, “he’s ugly” / “what possessed him to wear that suit? / ‘God he has short stumpy legs’ / “he’s got a 2 paper bag head on him”. It’s so very, very rare to criticize a man for his looks or what he is wearing, yet we criticize a woman’s looks and appearance seems to be an everyday occurance.
You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance, as opposed to her ideas or actions, isn’t doing anyone any favors, least of all you. When you criticize a woman for either of these things it just goes to show you can’t rationale a decent argument against what she is saying, so you go for the personal attack. As though a woman with a hairdo you don’t like actually affects her thinking process, or a woman with a fat arse couldn’t possibly be a decent leader. Like, seriously? I’m not saying that men are never criticized, however it is usually in a completely different context, for example, many moons ago when Paul Keating was the treasurer of this country, it was noted that his suits were imported and Armani – this was pointed out because he wasn’t supporting Australian manufacturing / designers and spending a lot of money on suits ….. it wasn’t pointed out because wearing an Armani suit must obviously have affected his role as treasure.
Some examples …..
In the South African parliament – Koos van der Merwe, a long-serving IFP politician, stood up in the middle of one of Mazibuko’s (female) speeches and interrupted, “on a point of order”, to ask what she had done to her hair. (I mean really???? Called a point of order to comment on her fucking HAIR?!)
Meanwhile in France …. Cecile Duflot, the French housing minister, endured wolf-whistles as she delivered a speech in the national assembly. Defending the incident, Patrick Balkany, said he was merely “admiring” Duflot, adding that she had chosen the dress she was wearing (a fairly conservative floral dress, if it matters) “so we wouldn’t listen to what she was saying”. (yeah, right)
In Sri Lanka – Rosy Senanayake, member of Sri Lanka’s opposition United National party, has been involved in politics for more than 20 years, serving as a UN Goodwill ambassador and Sri Lanka’s high commissioner in Malaysia. And yet, when asked a question by her in parliament, Kumara Welgama, the transport minister, said he was “choked” by her beauty. “I am so happy to answer a question by a beauty queen,” he said (Senanayake is a former Miss World).
Senanayake, who is a vocal activist for women’s rights, was strangely not impressed: “I’m still being recognised as a beauty queen, but I’ve been a high commissioner and in politics for such a long time. As a woman you are not recognised as a person who has done so many portfolios, but always referred to as the beauty you were in your heyday.”
In the USA about Hillary Clinton – Radio host Rush Limbaugh said: “Will this country want to watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?” But it wasn’t just the rightwing media – serious newspapers gave much attention to her cleavage, clothes and hair.
And here at home this week, I was reading the comments on a post about former Rugby League player, Joey Johns and one women made her thoughts on Joey quite clear (she didn’t like him) – one male replied with ‘shouldn’t you be cleaning?’ (He himself with that comment came across as a neanderthal – and my apologies to all Neanderthals…)
You see, insulting a woman’s looks when they have nothing to do with the issue at hand implies a lack of comprehension on your part, an inability to engage in high-level thinking.
You may think she’s ugly, but everyone else with an intelligent brain just thinks you’re an idiot.