The paradox, as I see it, is this. We are bombarded all day and night with ads and promos and music and film proclaiming that women are so strong, so powerful, they are mighty and confident and able to do anything.
Unless some man makes a joke about hot pants. They are suddenly liable to being reduced to a quavering mass of tepid jello:
From the New York Times, 2017-12-14:
Mr. Spurlock also said in his statement that about eight years ago, he settled a sexual harassment allegation for calling his assistant “hot pants” or “sex pants” from across the room in the office. “Something I thought was funny at the time, but then realized I had completely demeaned and belittled her to a place of non-existence,” Mr. Spurlock wrote. “So, when she decided to quit, she came to me and said if I didn’t pay her a settlement, she would tell everyone. Being who I was, it was the last thing I wanted, so of course, I paid. I paid for peace of mind. I paid for her silence and cooperation. Most of all, I paid so I could remain who I was.”
Is this where we are now? To the absurd? (By the way, why, in God’s name, didn’t Spurlock pre-empt her and issue a press release confessing that he had called his assistant “hot pants”? It would have been comedy. And cheaper. And less demeaning to all concerned.)
And this is where the women’s movement wants to take us? Where men can be sued for casual irreverence, for jokes, for not being nice? Where they simultaneously want to be paid off and to take revenge. Where they are dissatisfied with anything less than the destruction of a man’s career and reputation. Where they forgive each other for taking the money and making it possible for other women to be victimized, but they demand a mans’ head for an admiring glance, for the display of sexual interest, for jokes that are only as tasteless as those offered by the most famous and successful comedians on TV.
Have you seen Louis C.K.’s stint in SNL recently? For that, he is not only paid well, but lauded as a comic genius. Now, if he had said it aloud in his office, he would be sued.
This is not just absurd. It is obscene. And it raises questions in my mind about the meaning of the entire “me too” movement. Is this really the standard women want to raise? This is is how weak and helpless they wish to proclaim themselves to be, that any reference to sexual attractiveness is like heresy to a Medieval Jesuit?
I have seen women behave towards each other and towards men with far more cruelty and jaundice than this.
As the story “Cat Person” by Kristen Roupenian reveals– accurately, I think– there is far more ambiguity in the issue than you would think from the hysterical headlines. (This is not an endorsement of the literary value of the story, which I find mediocre at best.)
[whohit]To the Absurd: Hot Pants[/whohit]