Or is it a serious indicator of how women are still viewed in society?
Yes. It's an indication of the way in which women are viewed as sex objects/sexual commodities (as in, there for male enjoyment) in a way which men are not. Women not being valued as people/individuals, but only so far as they behave in ways which the man/men in question want them to.
The "cheer up darling it might never happen" or "give us a smile" from random blokes is the same thing on a less obviously offensive scale - the expectation that women should be smiley & decorative. Those random blokes wouldn't say the same thing to another man who was walking along looking grumpy/sad.
(as you may be able to tell I get rather aerated about this as well!)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-04 12:39 pm (UTC)Or is it a serious indicator of how women are still viewed in society?
Yes. It's an indication of the way in which women are viewed as sex objects/sexual commodities (as in, there for male enjoyment) in a way which men are not. Women not being valued as people/individuals, but only so far as they behave in ways which the man/men in question want them to.
The "cheer up darling it might never happen" or "give us a smile" from random blokes is the same thing on a less obviously offensive scale - the expectation that women should be smiley & decorative. Those random blokes wouldn't say the same thing to another man who was walking along looking grumpy/sad.
(as you may be able to tell I get rather aerated about this as well!)