Sensitive Issue

Today

Today, following a chat with my daughter I found myself reading articles about "Throwback Sexism" which encompassed stories about prestigious awards refused because of the demeaning ceremonies surrounding them, is Hello Kitty throwback sexist?  and the ongoing debate about Bunny Girls.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5124323/University-Bradford-rejects-award-sexist-ceremony.html?ITO=1490

One of the problems about protesting is that you can be accused of having no sense of humour: "It's just a bit of harmless fun", or being over-sensitive.

In My Day

One of my colleagues at the Tax Office in Lewes back in about 1976 was a man called Geoff Bridger. He was a small, aggressively macho man with a penchant for shooting small animals. He was an enthusiastic member of the TA and would occasionally accidentally-on-purpose find that he had bullets in his pocket.

One year in January he pranced into the office with a full-on naked female "girlie" calendar and hung it on the wall behind his desk. Most of the women didn't find it too funny, but few had the temerity to complain to management, fearing that they would be labelled over-sensitive and easily offended. Those that did found that management had no will to intervene. So the nasty object stayed on the wall.

In those days I was a regular reader of Cosmopolitan and they often featured male naked centrefolds, usually of well-known celebrities with hot bodies. I discovered that they were also doing a male nude calendar that year. I ordered this and hung it on the wall behind my desk. Cue a massive protest by the male staff, led by Geoff. I was asked to remove the item, which I agreed to do if the opposite number was also removed, which it was. I wasn't in the slightest bit interested in the male nudes, but I'd made my point, none too subtly. Interestingly, nobody seemed to suggest that the men were being over-sensitive or lacking a sense of humour.

What still puzzles me is why anyone would want to be served by women dressed as rodents, as well as why any right-minded woman would agree to dress up as one.