Celluloid Sexism
An interesting piece in the Edinburgh Evening News explaining how one local cinema banned males from the the first three rows of the auditorium for the opening weekend of Ocean's Twelve in order to save the space for desparate women who want to be as close to the screen to ogle George and Brad as possible.
One the one hand this is a bit of ridiculous hen-night-style fun for the girls. On the other hand it's exactly the sort of thing that, were the gender roles reversed, the women would be berating men over. I know from my own time at a female-dominated college (I loved it, of course) that if I casually remarked how cute a girl going past was I was a 'pig' according to my female companions, who would then go on to make numerous remarks about the tight arse on the boy coming down the refrectory stairs and what they would like to do it.
That of course, was completely different. Ah, sexual equality, ain't it wonderful?
Just as well the cinema wasn't doing this in the US in case they ended up being sued by a group of male cinephiles for sexual discrimination. Or, given George and Brad both have plenty of gay male fans, sued for homophobic discrimination. Seriously though, can you imagine the abuse that would be heaped upon us if there was a similar guys-only set of front rows for a new movie with a large ensemble of cute leading ladies? Come on, girls, admit it - some women can be just as silly as they accuse men of being. But then that's part of the fun in life.
I've found that once you start noticing the double standards women employ over equality you can quite quickly go mad. I guess the ladies must be acutely aware of any double standards we employ, whilst suffering a peculiar blind spot towards their own. Ah well....'slife I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in a ware house full of men. I was the only woman there, I felt like I was a zoologist gathering data on the male species. I loved it!
ReplyDeleteMy co worker had a thing for a particular actress, when ever I found her photo, I'd bring it to him and paste it up for him in his work area. One day I found a huge poster of said actress and hung it up for him. One of the supervisors had asked him "does Maeve mind you have all those pictures up?" He laughed as he told the boss "hell, SHE put them up for me!".
And yes, women talk about all the nasty things we'd like to do to you men as you walk by.
I had a lesbian colleague once who had skimpily-clad female celeb pics in her office. She claimed it was okay for her to ogle them but not for the guys :-).
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed my college days - 80% female faculty and I shared a cool party flat with a mate and three girls. Quite an eye opener.