A gender thing?

Our friend Sindy recently called attention to a You Tube posting of Miss Representation.  You really want to check it out before we begin our discussion for today.

Go ahead, we’ll wait…

All ready?

Okay, so now that we’re all in the same starting blocks, let’s think about what we saw. I could say that as the father of daughters, I’m outraged. But that would misleading.  Although this video does a good job of highlighting gender inequities, it’s not like this is news. 

And THAT is what I find outrageous.

The problem of presumed gender roles has led to an enormous waste of human potential. And not only because women have been traditionally relegated the traditional role of home-bound nurturer  / sex goddess.

The fact is, this topic is just way too big for a father of daughters to handle in a little vanity blog. But it’s also too important to leave alone.

I was tempted to do one about standards of beauty and inequities in the professional world and abuse, but it’s just too big a subject for this vehicle and tonight, for this writer. You should see the paragraphs I deleted before I uploaded this piece.

Who am I to chime in on why more than half of our population is treated like sex-toys-or-nothing? So I’ll leave those paragraphs in the deletion bin. Well, except these few…

The pragmatist in me just won’t let this bit go: As a society, we’re wasting a resource we simply can’t afford to waste. We look to models and reality stars and trophy wives for our role models. And we’re missing so many who really should be considered role models.

I’m glad we know about Jean Kirkpatrick and Condoleeza Rice but what about Marie Tharp?  Why don’t young girls grow up knowing about Amy Smith or Regina Benjamin? Why do so many know about Bill Gates but relatively few about Patty Stonesipher? I could go on and on…

We’re wasting latent talent that we don’t encourage to flourish. Even setting aside basic fairness, that’s just dumb.

There’s a piece of billboard art making the rounds. It shows the tail end of a ‘60s muscle car under the caption, “Remember when your cup holder sat next to you and wore a poodle skirt?”

You have to wonder how many cup holders could have helped change the world, given the opportunity to drive.