I own a nifty program which is designed to teach you how to write faster on a keyboard. Right now, I use it to learn a new keyboard layout. But that's not my exact problem; when exercising, I must write down texts which are displayed on the screen. And those texts show, very clearly
- that a man wrote them
- how our society works
Sadly, I had to interrupt my exercises because the texts really bother me.
They describe multiple male characters doing clever things, like learning mathematics. Women, on the contrary, are either concerned about their weight or presented under the male gaze/by a male point of view (it's no surprise, under the assumption that the creator was a heterosexual male, but nevertheless annoying).
So "she" is
pretty and
sweet and so on. - Why isn't she intelligent, witty, funny or talented? Why doesn't she like motorcycles, art or physics? Probably due to the fact that women are often displayed as accessories by our media.
It is not a woman's intelligence that improves the male status ('cause hey, she could contradict anyone or have a personality!) but her looks. No thanks, you do not have to state your opinion in order to look good.
On a related note, in exercise texts for foreign languages, girls are usually "beautiful" or "cute", but boys can be virtually everything.
You could remark those are only a few examples, but in reality, it's the core of the problem: her beauty shouldn't be the first thing that springs to mind when speaking about a woman. It decreases the probability that I can value her countless personality traits.
Finally, let's link this to politics; male politicians do not try to look incredibly handsome on stage. Usually, they wouldn't make it on the pages of a fashion magazine. But if a woman runs for a higher position in this male domain (or is already established), you will often hear and read statements about her physical appearance.
Sure, Angela Merkel doesn't meet current beauty standards, but
what does this fact tell us about her ability to do her job? Why don't people say that she governs this country without ever stating a clear position on certain topics? People don't mention that Helmut Kohl [former German Chancellor] is overweight in every second article. Clearly, no one's interested!
It's limited to the coverage of women in politics to emphasize their competences based on their good looks or cast doubt on their competence by underlining physical "flaws".
Similar, but not the same treatment is reserved for Westerwelle [currently Foreign Minister] or Wowereit [Mayor of Berlin] who are under attack because they are homosexual. It's accepted to attack them because -haha- this is so funny: a man who isn't sexually attracted to women. [It's not the same like in the U.S. Those attacks are usually framed as "jokes" or "funny" side remarks. In Germany, homosexuality is
officially accepted. – Well no one talks about it publicly.]
All of this shows that real respect is reserved for white, heterosexual men in our society.
*As it turns out, this wasn't a good idea. Now, I have to read everything again.
Zweisatz - 13. Jul, 20:20
