After the 70’s: What Us Girls Can Do
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My friend Kenny shared this graphic Monday afternoon. It’s a photo of a kid’s book from the 1970’s, listing things boys do and things girls do. I read each panel, and my eyes got wider and wider. The SEVENTIES. Not the forties or fifties, the seventies. Women were still seen as less than equal in the seventies.
After examining the photo, I decided to make a new list. This list will not necessarily replace everything in that photo, but it will provide an updated version more reflective of the roles men and women play in the 21st century. It will also, shockingly enough, contain some snark. I know, try to contain your amazement.
*Boys are pilots, girls are pilots. Boys are also flight attendants, as are girls. If you call them stewardesses, they throw Bloody Mary mix on your suit.
*Boys are presidents, girls are presidents. Boys will also be First Husbands, or in the case of Marcus Bachmann, still First Ladies.
*Boys are doctors, girls are doctors, boys and girls are nurses. Boys and girls both play doctor, sometimes with each other. Some boys and girls grow up to play doctor for a living: that’s called “porn.”
*Boys join the police force, girls join the police force. According to a video by Beyonce, joining the police force can ruin your relationship, especially if your partner is hot.
*Boys can eat, girls can cook. Most professional chefs are men, unfortunately. Yes, we have Cat Cora and Alice Waters, but for the most part, the egos wearing the toques are men. Also, competitive eating champ Sonya Thomas is a girl.
*Boys build houses, girls keep house. The fact that I am ignoring cleaning the kitchen to write this should make it clear that all girls do not clean house. I’ll get to it eventually. Girls are construction workers, girls build houses, girls even (gasp) are architects. Put that in your penis and smoke it okay that looks really weird…
*Boys invent things, girls use what boys invent. Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903. Dr. Temple Grandin invented, among other things, a more humane way to restrain animals on their way to slaughter, and Dr. Grandin has autism. Patsy Sherman invented Scotchgard. Girls invent things, everyone uses what girls invent. Boys invent things, everyone uses what boys invent. See? Easy.
*Boys fix things, girls need things fixed. When I was a light tech/designer, I stripped cable, rewired plugs, reworked dimmer boards, hung lighting instruments from pipe that was usually attached to a catwalk, sometimes attached to a ceiling by rope and good thought, I wore a tool belt, had my own wrenches, wore a roll of electrical tape around my wrist and usually had burn marks on my arms from wonky wiring. I can fix things. I can change a tire, check my own oil, rewire household appliances, defrag my own computer (could THAT take any longer?) and, if absolutely necessary, perform a vasectomy, with the proper tools and an instructional video playing in the background.
That photo scared me a bit, especially given what fundies said about we women at the Values Voter summit. You know, how women need to be covered up and dressed modestly because if we show too much skin, men are tempted. Tempted to what-tell us to put on jeans, it’s cold outside? Oh, tempted to…you know…get all sexy and stuff. ‘Cuz men can’t control themselves at all. I’m surprised men ever get anything done, quite frankly, what with all the womenfolk around, looking so tempting.
So, I guess the fundie list should include “Boys always have boners, Girls should wear parkas all the time.” After we check the oil, win a pie eating contest and land this plane.
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Folks I could care less who does what as long as they do it well. This entire masculine vs feminine job description crap has always bothered me. I have never liked the idea that I am not supposed to do something because it is considered a woman’s job, or I am supposed to do something because it is a man’s job. I never cared much for being a host for a parasitic female who wants to be a “homemaker”. I don’t want to be one myself. Because of my life situation I never really knew the life of “Ozzie and Harriet” or “Leave It To Beaver.” Both my mother and my grandmother were working women, not because of a sense of liberation, but because of a need to put food on the table and a roof over our head. Over the past few years people have talked about both parents having to work like it is an anomaly. That was a way of life when I was growing up. In terms of what they did, it was what was available. I vaguely remember at one time my mother worked on airplanes at Brookley Field in Mobile, Alabama during WWII. Actually I think I remember the photos more than I remember her working.
What a difference 50 years makes. I think that book might have missed the 60’s. Having been raised in that era, I giggle and am amazed that I am one of three female executives (out of 9)at the big table and am lucky to be in an environment where each person is taken seriously irregardless of his/her gender. Nice post. I would also wonder if that book or others from that time spoke to what each race could do…etc.
Carol, I remember having a coloring book that looked a lot like the photo above. Men were airline pilots, women were “stewardesses,” men were construction workers, women were secretaries, etc. It’s funny now, but I wonder how many young girls didn’t have strong female influences, or grandfathers like yours who instilled a sense of personal strength that rose above the silliness of “girls do this, boys do this.” I would bet many of those women are now part of the the far right.
In 2012 sitcoms, boys are all blithering idiots and girls always display their competence (when they’re not putting down the boys).
I’d like to know both the copyright date and the name of the publisher of that book to determine how representative it is of childrens’ books of the seventies. All there is to identify it is a typed-over caption.
Yes, it’s all part of a vile plot by evil males, and I won’t use the equivalent of “Put that in your penis and smoke it…”
You do realize that there are people who still believe this way about women in 2012, right? There’s no mention of a plot, just a snarky correction of an outdated view of male and female roles. I’m surprised at your reaction, actually.
My reaction comes from the fact that when I read remarks like that, I realize I’m being condemned, not because of anything I’ve said or done, but merely because I was born with a dick. That’s just as sexist as the page at the top of this posting.