I recently saw an ad on craigslist for a fundraising job which stated Texas legislature cut 130,000 women off from affordable cancer screenings and birth control. The ad also stated Arkansas and North Dakota have passed abortion bans that directly challenge Roe v. Wade and put women at risk. As I'm sure this is only the tip of the iceberg, naturally I applied for the fundraising position.
This job ad was literally the straw that broke the camel's back. There were a few straws before that. One of them being an article I read last year in Metro about new cafes popping up in Manhattan where the waitresses, dressed in little maid costumes, refer to male patrons as "masters." These restaurants are called maid cafes and originally started in Japan in 2001. The fact that these cafes are becoming popular in the city that I was born and raised in, plus the fact that waitresses are fulfilling some find of male fantasy, was too much to bear. Unfortunately there were more straws to come.
Another straw came in a tasteless Halloween costume that a website was selling last year called Anna Rexia. The costume consisted of a skin tight black dress with bones on the front, a bone barrette, a name tag that read Anna Rexia, and a measuring tape. I had never seen a more offensive costume in my entire life. Anorexia nervosa is a serious disease that affects both men and women, yet I noticed were no "Adam Rexic" costumes for men.
One of the latest straws was a commercial for Summer's Eve body wash. The commercial starts with a man in the shower scrubbing his body with a foamy body wash. His girlfriend then explains to him that he's using Summer's Eve and it's pH balanced for a woman's "V." The commercial goes on to show the boyfriend doing some "manly" things such as chopping wood and pulling a car by his teeth. It ends with the girlfriend saying to him, "that was close."
Oh where do I begin?
The first thing that infuriated me about this commercial was the fact that the girlfriend says "V" instead of vagina, like vagina is some bad word that can't be said on T.V. The other thing that bugged me was that the boyfriend had to prove he was a man by doing some asinine activities that he deemed masculine enough to prove his manhood. Apparently being the slightest bit effeminate would have been unacceptable to him. It's really ironic that an ad for a feminine hygiene product is more about a man than a woman.
So what did I do about all these things that irked me so much? Absolutely nothing. And as far as the fundraising job is concerned, I realized I would not have the time to hold down two jobs and go to school full time.
Like many other women, I am working at a low-wage job just to keep my head above water. Sound familiar? It should, if you're a woman. According to the Center for American Progress, in 2012, 64 percent of minimum wage earners were women.
In addition to working a low-level, part-time job, I also go to school three nights a week in the hopes that one day I will have a career with a steady income. Until then I don't have the time, yet the energy to fight against anything. Right now most of my time is spent on work, school, housework and worrying about money.
I could only imagine how hectic my life would be if I had children, like some of my female classmates. With more women in the workforce than ever and the majority of housework being done by women, researchers report, it's a miracle women have time for anything else. I imagine this is what our society wants--women who are too exhausted physically, mentally, and financially to stand up for the issues that matter most to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment