Misogynist Cliches?

Question

How come women still embody them? After I started working (after I left my semi arty-farty environment)I met so many walking misogynistic cliches that it would make any woman-hater l**k his lips with glee! I met girls and women who: don't talk or think about anything else but shopping or they bf. who threat they bf like a walking credit card (some of these girls come from Asia or are Jewish-American-Princesses, but I don't think that makes such a difference), I met an intelligent woman who wasn't talking about anything else but her planned wedding for three months solid. Women who would be proud to be a goldddiger and look for a sugardaddy. Women who get male strippers for a hen party...I could count and count. How can we achieve anything if there are women who are willing to be cartoon females?

Answer 1

This is not a good question. To be candid, you sound like a misandrist (man-hater).

Answer 2

So some women like to talk about shopping, their boyfriends,and their upcoming weddings. Who cares? Let them. They're not hurting anybody. Did you ever think that they're just happier that way?

Answer 3

The world contains all sorts of women, and not all of them conform to your idea of what a woman should be like.  Get used to it.  

And to the comment who talks about 'Jackie', the reason girls buy magazines like that, is because they like them.  I always found 'Jackie' boring, because I never cared for romance, but nobody forced me, or anybody else, to read it.  Magazines publish what they think will sell.  And romance sells, then and now.

Answer 4

Surely, you mean that these women collude with a system which propogates misogyny? Women who mistakenly believe that holding any feminist values which only call for basic human rights for women somehow mean that they must deny their very femaleness or hate men!  So, they become supremo collaborators! Rather present as a doormat cliche than a man hater or perish the thought a L*****n!! Totally agree these women absorb the misogyny then spew it out - they think they are liberated...deluded and self loathing!

Answer 5

I'm more worried about the younger generation's spelling and grammar.

Answer 6

It is changing with the glass ceiling being penetrated more and more.  More PhDs for women and concerns for the real issues that are important to life.  There will always be the fringe groups that must have a lap dog and the latest footwear.   And there will always be the ones who think they can have it easy and marry some old codger for his money instead of making their own.  They will learn that what they thought was the easy way turned out to be the worst.  I think one day it will hit them that material things and the big weddings etc.are only hiding the inadequasies  of their own lives.  One day it might hit them.  We can only hope.

Answer 7

Okay, so you observed a small facet of their personality. Well done AND good for you in dehumanising those women and reducing them to standard sexist social types. You are a great help. People see different aspects of others personalitys. Maybe that is all they felt comfortable chatting to you about? Your question is more indicative of your own pride and hubris then those women actually embodying misogynistic cliches!

Edit:

I talk about shopping, weddings and boyfriends. I also discuss philosophy, art, poetry, music, politics, anthropplogy.Do not reduce others for your own self esteem and ego.

Answer 8

i agree

veritas - lol! you attack these 'cartoon women' in practically every answer. 'nagging females' seems to be a particular favourite

Answer 9

Well, cliches usually arise for a reason. You will always have women who fall into certain categories. The same can easily be said for some men (beer drinking, leering, f**t smellers etc). Also, aren't you pigeon holing these women? By your own descriptions you are forcing them into boxes. There is always more to someone than what you see on the surface.

Answer 10

I see no misogyny here, unless your definition of "misogynist" is one who thinks women can't do math.

Sure, those women sound quite shallow, but what exactly about these descriptions is HATEFUL to women?

Answer 11

Well to be honest, societal expectations of women remain the same today as they did 30 or 40 years ago.

The Jackie Magazine of the 70s placed a huge emphasis on beauty/marriage/dating (minus the s*x) and targeted girls at such impressionable young ages that they essentially became socialised to internalise these expectations.

The 90s and 00s should have seen the decline in such "traditionalist", Victorian type expectations of women, nevertheless what happened instead was that women through music videos, the popularity of WAG culture, the popularity of celebrity lifestyles and even the huge popularity of consumerism ("you are what you own" type of mentality), put a damper on any real female mental evolution (if that makes sense)

Today women are still referred to as whores/b*****s and some are even proud to be referred to as such which does make one wonder if female empowerment is a farce.

Peace

Answer 12

I think it's incredibly oppressive to expect all women to be role models for feminism, rather than turning your ire at the people *actually* doing the oppressing within the patriarchal society in which we live. Are you saying then that all people who happen to fit, say, a racial stereotype are guilty of *causing* that stereotype and should behave differently to how they are so as to render the stereotype ineffective? No - the people who are content to stereotype others at all should be the ones under scrutiny.

All women deserve to be treated as full, intelligent, contributing, vivid human beings with rights, potential and ability equal to anyone else. They don't deserve to be told how to live their lives to fuel your cause. And perhaps the reason the women have made these choices is because most advertising is overtly aimed at making women inadequate? Or because many women find that, unfortunately, the most power they can have over their lives is the power they get from finding a man to look after them, a man who has vastly more choice over his path in a career or in his society than she ever would. They should not be ostracised for this. The system which creates those choices should. Hx

Answer 13

Hi AmyZ.

I really like your question.  I don't think there is anything we can do about other women.  We can't control them, or how they were raised to be.  But what we can control is ourselves.  We can be an example for all women, that they can be a strong, independent person; and not just a "woman".  We can live our lives and raise our daughters to believe the way we believe.  That we can do anything if we set our minds to it.  

The behaviors you are referring to are quite cliche.  They are the "typical girly things" to do.  But you have to remember that not all women had parents to raise them the way you were.  You may have been taught that in life, there are other things to focus on.  I was raised to just be a person, and not a gender.  But it doesn't mean they were, so from their perspective, they are just fine.  

Thanks for the Q.

Answer 14

It's not neccessarily cliche. Most women are actually like that.

Answer 15

sense when does women using men define as misogynist? and for that mater neither does women going on and on about there wedding or going out to see male strippers............... if any thing it is the opposite.

it makes sense that it goes both ways, like it or not there is never just one side to a argument or it would not be a argument.

don't worry about the spelling hek no one is perfect so just ignore those who thank they are.

Answer 16

EXACTLY. Often women are more sexist than men.

Message for FEMINISTS: Before you tell me to wash MY car... why don't you wash yours?

Answer 17

Because they think... girls will be girls... and boys will be...

toys

Answer 18

Sounds like you need to hang out with a better class of people, male or female.

Answer 19

These women don't exist because of the cliches, but rather the other way around.

Generalizations are generally true.

It seems like you expect all of womankind to conform to your ideal and that just isn't going to happen.

Answer 20

They are not 'cartoon females', they are real. Don't expect the majority of women to behave in a way that feminist zealots would approve of.

In my opinion, the true feminist zealot is far more concerned with undermining men than they are in supporting the sisterhood. Turning women into victims merely gives them the excuse to have a go at men.

I would never attack these so called 'cartoon women' you refer to, because to me they are normal, and thank goodness, because they are not always on duty following a feminist agenda.