All posts tagged: Sexism

The Problem With Being A ‘Gentleman’

Last night, Donald Trump threw a hilarious joke: “I’m a gentleman.” We all laughed. Some people in the audience cheered. Yet, it felt so wrong because it was. I think we can all agree that Donald Trump thought he was being a gentleman when he took a woman furniture shopping. I think we can all agree that his definition of gentlemanliness includes grabbing women by their pussies and move on them. But, Donald Trump is not the only one claiming to be a gentleman. Every man is. The inherent characteristic of gentlemanliness is sexist. It includes actions such as opening doors, pulling back chairs, paying for dinner and proposing marriage. In the traditional sense, being a gentleman is an acknowledgment of power, and that is a problem. To Donald Trump being a gentleman includes letting Hillary Clinton answer questions first promulgating the sexist practice of “Ladies first.” It’s providing expensive gifts for women to be impressed by his success, instead of his brain (that would be difficult, though). It’s being a “macho” who is stronger, …

The Men in the Room

It’s a fact: most men only greet other men and ignore the women in the room. It mainly goes unnoticed but ‘Master of None’ has shone light to this issue and got us standing up for ourselves in similar situations. It served as inspiration behind a recent episode at work, where a female colleague called out a male colleague for not greeting the two women in the room as he did to the men. “Why did you only salute them and not us?”, she said. We were all shocked. I felt stupid for being astonished that she had stood up for both of us and asked myself if I had done the same. Truly, I wouldn’t have. It’s surprising to think that we are brought up to not recognize these acts of sexism in the workplace and daily lives. Furthermore, as females, we are supposed to keep quiet and take them as part of being women, the second sex. After the incident, I proceeded to watch ‘Master of None’. Admittedly, I wanted to take a …