Recently I was taking part in a discussion on a website that is mainly made up of men when it dawned on me how equality has affected men.
I'm not saying we should go back to the times when women had few or no rights, unequal pay, lack of opportunities etc. but I'm wondering if it's gone too far in some ways.
The men were talking about the hours they sit in shops waiting for their wives to try on yet another piece of clothing and how they pass the time. I asked them why they did it. Why go shopping when they hate it so much? The consensus was that it kept the peace. It was easier than the argument and bad feeling that would happen if they said no. The image of a bored man waiting outside a ladies changing room is a standard joke but really it's a man doing something to keep the peace. Would it be seen as funny if a woman was doing something she hated just to keep the peace?
Images of videos and images of woman as sex objects often cause outrage yet the Diet Coke advert where a group of women leer at a man with no shirt on is seen as funny. As are adverts that depict men as halfwits who are incapable of using household appliances, caring for children, etc.
Surely gender equality means that everyone is treated with respect. It seems to me that things have tipped over the other way.
exactly Gandtea
