So Sheryl Sandberg was on the Daily Show on Wednesday. Guess what she said. That women are held back by a lot of things…and one of them is stereotypes. Yes stereotypes. Omigod! Radfem alert! Somebody summon franc hoggle to fantasize about kicking her in the cunt!
But we’re also held back by stereotypes. Go to a playground and you’ll hear little girls called bossy! You don’t hear little boys called bossy, because we expect boys to be assertive and lead.
Oh oh oh! That’s crazy talk!! That’s the diametric opposite of skepticism!!! Where’s the evidence?! Where’s the peer-reviewed science?! Where’s the PhD in sociology?! Where are the three whole classes in Women’s Studies? That’s misandrist, and professional victim, and femistasi. Paula Kirby needs to talk to Sheryl Sandberg and set her straight.
And so we’re trying to change that. You know, rather than call our little girls bossy, we should say “my daughter has executive leadership skills.”
Cheers and applause.
Then Stewart suggests, hesitantly and as if it were a new thought, that a woman saying this kind of thing gets a slightly more heated reaction than a man would.
Stewart: Why do you think women are judged more harshly in these arenas?
Sandberg: So our stereotypes – and again, these are deep, these start in childhood – are that men should lead, men should speak up, men should have opinions.
Does that sound familiar at all? Just a tiny bit?
Women should nurture, help others, sit back. The National Retailers Association printed up T shirts, onesies, for babies – the boys’: smart like Daddy; the girls: pretty like Mommy. Not in the 1950s; two years ago.
And so, when women speak out, when women are successful, they are less liked, while when men speak out, they are better liked.
That sounds a little bit familiar too. Just a little bit. Goats. Excuse me, something in my throat. Goats, goats. So sorry – anyone got a cough drop? Goats, goats, goats.
Then she says we can change it, and we should, because if we can understand the stereotypes, they can change.
Yes! But in the process – we will hear a lot of shit from a lot of shitlords. A LOT.
Then Stewart hits a nail on the head –
It seemed easier to change the access to power than to change the cultural pressures that women face.
Exactly. Harriet Hall, Paula Kirby: please note. If Stewart can see that, why tf can’t you?
Sandberg tells a story of her friend Rachel who told her daughter, age 5, that women who succeed are less liked while men who succeed are more liked, and the daughter’s response was…”Well then Mommy I would just do less well at work.”
Change this please. Let’s do this thing.