Re: The Ugly Incident/sexism

[Mark Whitney <WHITNEMR -at- MORRISVILLE -dot- EDU>]

Bruce says:
You missed the point Mark.

A loud mouth is a loud mouth. Male or female. We weren't talking about
ability.

You complain of a loud mouthed female being called a bitch (to quote
others). Have you EVER heard a female called an arse'ole, prick, bastard,
mongrel etc etc (we all know the swear words).

The answer is no. These are terms saved for the male equivalent of a
'bitch'.

And as I've previously stated, the size of the mouth is usually the
opposite of the size of the ability. Male or female.


_________________________________________________________________________
Me:
   I'm sorry, Bruce. I must respectfully disagree.  I agree that there are
certainly "loudmouths" of both genders, and that they can be a real pain to
work for, but that was not my point.
   The point I was trying to illustrate, which has numerous studies in
support, is that there is a double standard for women in the workplace. You
point out that there are words the equivilent of "bitch" for males, and that
is certainly true. But what matters is the interpretation of those terms.
In other words, if an employee calls a male a "bastard" it may have an
entirely different connotation (and ramifications) than if that same
employee calls a female a "bitch."
   The difference is that the male terms are often not viewed negatively, or
at the very least rationalized... (oh, ya gots to be a bastard to get the job
done, and he gets the job done). However, a female who also tries to get the
job done may be labelled a "bitch" for what is typically perceived as
standard male behavior (Yeah, she's tryin to get the job done, but she's a
pushy bitch and I can't work for her). In other words, the EXACT same behavior
is tolerated, and even condoned, for men, yet villified for women. So, women
may be labelled a "loudmouth" (in the negative context we've been using here)
when all they're doing is acting like a typical "non-loudmouth" male counter-
part.
   An added effect is that when women don't want to be perceived that way
(and who would?), they are viewed as too passive to be given the plum
assignments. Bummer all the way around.

                            Mark Whitney
                            Communications Dept
                            SUNY Morrisville

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