While I've been pleased to note on these pages perhaps some of the fairest treatment of ability when it comes to gender - there are still the comments that seem inevitable - like - "she was such a great fighter - kicking butt in our dojo - and I have to mention that she was really pretty too!
"As if looks on a female fighter are not separable from her fighting ability. I have yet to see anyone discuss the physical appearance, possitive or negative, of any of our male martial artists. But often when a female is being discussed, it comes up and probably passes without too much note.
Personally, I don't care - (so all you closet chauvanists can relax and keep posting without fear of reprisal from an innocent comment or two!
) I learned long ago that the double standard has myriad manifestations in business, life, safety, fighting, self-defense etc. The point is - live with it - find a way to make it work - it isn't going to change!Not to say we shouldn't point it out from time to time - and object when things get really sexist and ridiculous - like those knife video ads that Ian brought up. Face it - sex sells. Everything from cars to cigarrettes to liquor to knives and guns and whatever else the advertising moguls decide needs a boost. Plays on the male ego and continuously beats down the female one as women and especially girls are bombarded with images of what they "should" look like - and not to mention the role of an object... but I digress!
My point in sharing this article is just to share a bit of awareness as to how we describe males and females in the same role. Keep an eye out for the next description of a female martial artist - and observe how her appearance enters into the list of attributes along with her style, stance or spirit. Then I dare you to start a discussion about the "cuteness" of one of our esteemed senior male fighters... ha!
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The good news: President-elect George W. Bush named Condoleezza Rice as his choice for National Security Advisor, an office never before held by a woman. The bad news: she's still just a woman.
As Salon's Fiona Morgan points out in a new article, the profile of Rice in last Sunday's New York Times contained a fair bit of information that seems decidedly out of place in a discussion of one of the most powerful women in the country. Among the trivia offered therein: Rice wears a size six dress with a "modest hemline," she has a bagel for breakfast, she "gushes Southern charm." Try imagining an examination of Dick Cheney's waistline, or just how "captivating" Colin Powell is in his crisp uniform, on those same pages.
The double standard for women of power is nothing new -- note how many women running for office are routinely referred to by their first names, as though a woman in office is cute -- but from the New York Times, when profiling a seasoned political player who happens to be a woman, one expects a bit more.
Despite the somewhat bittersweet nature of Rice's history-making move -- she is, after all, a black woman Republican -- she deserves the respect her career and position demand. Even if she may end up being the one who has to scold lil' Dubya for staying up past his bedtime.
Read more at Salon.com.
[This message has been edited by Lori (edited March 04, 2001).]
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