2027 Perception of Women

Monday, September 22, 2008

[Reading this over, I see I've combined the problem of an uneducated electorate, and negative views of the capability of women, and kind of tangled them up. Well, yeah. I could edit and rewrite to make it cleaner, but ... fooey. They ARE intertwined. ]

Of all the developed countries, the US ranks something like 75th in the participation of women in government (per a program on PBS). Why is it so difficult in this country for women to be elected to the House, or Senate, let alone the Presidency? Or even to rise to CEO of a corporation? Why do we still have that stupid glass ceiling?

Basically, because so many Americans, both male and female, don't believe that women are capable. They think whatever the job is, a man, any man, can do it better.

Why?

Because, and this is entirely my opinion, most of the women most people, male and female, come into contact with day to day are arbitrary, emotional, prone to playing "gotcha games", bitchy, backbiting, shallow, tend to react more than think, are unaware of issues beyond the latest Hollywood scandal and their next manicure, and are treated as sex objects because that's the way they present themselves. No, that's not all women, but it IS the ones the people who vote most heavily are most familiar with. That's the definition of "woman" to most people, including those who should know better.

Americans in general are not taught to think in schools. They learn to parrot, but seldom learn to think and analyze. If you need proof of this, sit down and talk with a group of suburban American teenagers, and then talk with some British or French or German teens of approximately the same social class. The European kids know more about the American government and the election issues that the American kids, and far outstrip them on world issues. Sample some blogs from around the world.

The great mass of Americans don't vote on the issues, but on their "gut feel", whatever that is. And their gut feeling is that women are stupid and cannot be trusted. Any woman who clearly ISN'T like that, obviously isn't really a woman. If she's smart and capable, then she must be hiding a set of balls.

Huh?

How do we change this perception? We won't get full representation until we do. We have to somehow make our young women stronger, give them concerns that extend beyond preoccupation with the contents of their bras. We have to educate our kids better. Teach them to think. Get them interested in the world.

Until we do, the mass of voters will vote in the way they are told by the few who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. Our government has an interest in keeping the electorate stupid. Stupid people are easier to herd in the direction you want them to go, and they don't know enough to complain when they're being mistreated.
.