Taking Swipes at Women for PMS: Not Funny!
April 11, 2010
by Karen
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
In my speech class, we were meant to give fake crisis speeches which can be serious or silly. One student – a woman – did a speech over what she called “Mad Cow Disease,” which in this case is women going through PMS. Everyone in the class thought it was incredibly funny except me. I tried pointing this out, and the speechgiver kept saying “Yes, women are hormonal, emotional, and can’t control themselves.” Everyone kept laughing. At the end of the speech, I realized they were laughing at me and at how offended I was.
The speech was incredibly offensive because anything that portrays women or generalizes all women as hormonal, emotional, and out-of-control reinforces sexist stereotypes. Humor portraying African-Americans as ignorant and lazy buffoons or as ignorant and violent beasts would be decried as racist. So, why is humor portraying women as hormonal, emotional, and out-of-control simply called humor and not decried on the basis of sexism?
Portraying any woman as out-of-control is sexist no matter how it is presented. Yahoo also tried this so-called joke “If Hillary Clinton is elected president, do you think PMS would alter he decision making?” but a lot of people actually base their beliefs about women upon that question.
Obama supporters stayed loyal unwavering focused on the issues making sure that they the Obamai-tes attended the rallies and kept their future President well funded.
While Hillary supporters went through all the up and downs of an awful PMS cycle.
There’s the gender thing. So far, Hillary is being treated as one of the guys, but she is a woman with a real shot at the White House and there are issues that will be raised. Politics is dirt and the dirt will fly. Many women suffer from PMS. Is Hillary past this, or can we look forward to, at least, one international crisis a month? If she is past this, what is the next stage? Do we want someone flooded with tears right in the middle of a major press conference because, well — I’m not sure I ever understood those things, but they are real. They do happen and then, of course, there is the matter of Bill. As this nation’s potential First Lady-Man, can this Presidential hopeful really be comfortable with Bill entertaining the wives of Prime Ministers, Kings and Presidents? Could that be any less of a threat than a nuclear armed Iran?
And then, you have this clip from Hardball in which Chris Mathews described Hillary Clinton having severe mood swings rather than simply behaving as a politician during a campaign.
Politicians often alternate between complimenting another politician and then attacking that same politician, especially in a campaign. Furthermore, just because someone says, “It is an honor to meet you” does not mean that other person is flawless or does nothing shameful.
She should never be a president. She’s a woman !
Women can’t drive, women rarely compete, women can’t make good decisions for others, women can’t be normal while they’re on PMS, just imagine a woman getting a little bit angry about feeling ugly one day, and then sending a nuclear bomb over Russia. Hillary Clinton is a woman, and should never be called president.
Don’t vote for her, she’s also kind of old and boring.
And finally, there is this anti-woman rant about women’s Olympic ski team.
I bet those litigious butchies don’t even care about competing in the Olympics. My guess is they’ve been hanging out together (who else would they hang out with?) and their periods have synced, creating a combined massive wave of PMS. And PMS, as everyone knows, is just an excuse for women to be irrational.
After class, I tried to talk to the professor, another woman, and she told me, “If someone called you a mad cow, that would be different” and she ended her little dialogue with “Lighten up. Take a chill pill. Get over it.” So, is it wrong to insult a single woman but okay to insult all women?
Excellent article, Karen! This is one of those abuses toward women that is so widespread and thought by most to be innocuous. But look how this myth was used to embarrass a woman Presidential Candidate over and over again in the mainstream media! It’s shameful and I really hope that your teacher and some of the students in your class have a chance to read this.
Besides, as we all know men have hormones, too. And we don’t discuss in the mainstream media if men should or should not hold office due to their high level of testosterone. Karen, if anyone were to give a speech in class mocking men (and I mean mocking and not using humor to aggrandize men) for their hormone levels your class would have been horrified and would have spoken up to defend men.
Thanks! There was another video that was meant to go with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvQIqm2xznU
And then, there is another one by the same guy, although it doesn’t fit with the article:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTUOVnxAM70
It’s just not funny anymore. I don’t understand why people laugh about crap like this. You know what’s getting old? Women who try to tear down other women. Tina Fey did her Palin SNL impression again. It was like Ha,ha, this woman is so stupid. Ha, ha, what a slut. Ha, ha, she’s a bad mother and unstable, too.
What people don’t seem to understand is that they are talking about all women when they promote those stereotypes. It might seem funny in a classroom or a comedy venue somewhere but it’s really not funny when you’re running for political office or even just going to a job interview. These kind of stereotypes hurt women and they just aren’t very funny when you’re forced to fight against the perception that you’re stupid, unstable, manipulative, and prone to irrational hormonal outbursts.
Agreed. In fact, there have been many, many conversations about the effect of testosterone on getting our country and the world into the economic crisis of 2008. Because of this, France has introduced legislation to require all corporate boards to be half female.
Why hasn’t a concern regarding the danger of testosterone mixed with nuclear power? It goes both ways.
It seems to me that conversations such as the one the author suggests are allowed because Tina Fey is allowed to ridicule women. Illogical, no I dont think so. To me life imitates art. If Fey is allowed to and can ridicule women such as Palin, Bachman etc, then it becomes ok for anyone to ridicule any woman. The fact is it is NEVER ok. Could a white comedian make racial jokes? NO, because it isnt acceptable behavior. Ridicule of women should also be incorrect behavior, but the left has allowed such ridicule without any objection. Where is NOW, Feministing,Daily Kos in their outrage of Fey? Why do I think that if the ridicule was directed at a woman of prominence in the left we’d all hear about it. The Bill Oreilly/Helen Thomas witch story of last year comes to mind- banner headlines all over the left blogosphere. But why not when it is against Palin. Frankly by allowing it against some women, the left makes it ok all the time, and is so doing, the woman mentioned in the article is told it is ok to make the speech she did. Am I wrong?
Not funny at all. And it is seriously leading young women astray. Like so many other examples….
My little niece recently had her photos done at “Glamour Shots” and when my eyebrow was raised as to how sexualized they are… I got the same response. “Take a chill pill” and “it’s all in fun.” The child is ten years old! The photos are, IMO, ghastly. And worse…. imagine the message that is sent to a ten year old girl being dolled up in a place like that?? WTF.
Now we all want to know how a few young highschool women could be so mean as to drive a classmate to suicide?? Well… let’s begin with the way adult women deride other women. Remember Randi Rhosed calling Hillary a “f***ing whore? And so many Dems thought it was just peachy for her to say that??
I could go on… but why? What the heck can we do about this… to wake America’s women up?? So that they can see this kind of thing is not only *not* funny…. but downright harmful to our souls?!
Bruce, I don’t agree with you. Hillary was derided mercilessly as the examples in Karen’s article show and there are plenty more where that came from. Have you forgotten how the Obama supporters called Hillary all sorts of rude, sexist names? There was no outrage.
Patti is correct. The current crop of Leftie men are equal opportunity bashers. They will bash women from either party relentlessly if it suits their agenda.
SYD PATTI- you are both correct-
In my comment I was dealing with Fey and her attacks on conservative women,and in doing so I forgot to include HRC as a victim of the horrendous attacks she was subjected to by Obama and his minons,but My point was that things such as the author presented occur because no one in authority objects and that until the so called feminist groups like NOW and blogs like Feministing speak up when the attacks are against any woman ,not just lefties like Helen Thomas( for whom they went on Oreilly to demand an apology), the “jokes” and attacks will continue. Woman equal over 50% of this country and if they collectively say no more…it will be no more.
Bruce,
I wish it was just a matter of women saying “no more” and it will be no more!
Without backing that outrage up with real political power and high positions within the business and legal sectors, we will merely be patronized and patted on our collective heads by the men who hold real power, and this biased attitude towards women will continue. In the case of Tina Fey, she’s considered “cool” for making fun of that stupid conservative woman. By making fun of Palin, Tina has secured her place with the “in crowd”. Very much the same kind of mentality you see in high school “cliques”. Women feel that to be accepted by the cool guys, they make fun of the “not so cool” girls in their class. Sadly, they bully them to death now.
Also, men have the great advantage of having the lion’s share of power in every sector of society, and to top that off, they are told at birth that the bible says that man was made “in God’s image” and therefore are automatically superior to women, and all without ever having done a thing to merit this exalted position in society.
On the other hand, women and their extraordinary contributions to society are systematically excluded from all history in order to perpetuate this automatic sense of superiority men claim as their birth right. Women are constantly portrayed as predominantly “sexual beings” put here to give pleasure and to serve men. Recently, I heard a report that blond women made more money than women who were brunets! So, men prefer blonds, therefore, a blonde woman gets paid more. Of course, still less than a man with any color hair doing the same work, but more than a brunet!! It’s not about the woman’s intellect, it’s about whether she visually pleases a man that gets her the better paycheck and it’s being talked about on national TV in 2010!
Yes, the deck is automatically stacked against women from the time we are born and it escalates as we get older. We can only hope that groups like TNA will keep standing up and pointing out these blatant injustices and the self-respect that is being sacrificed for a laugh by those women who consider putting down other women as simply business as usual. Then maybe, just maybe, women will begin to understand that more often than not, they are their own worst enemy and as long as we continue to disrespect ourselves in order to get “faux respect” from men, we will always be walking a step behind them.
Keren, thank you for this post.
Sexism starts on how menstruation and the changes it involves, is perceived in the scientific (medical) and cultural arenas.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-.....;id=758493
“In 1994 over the objections of many psychologists, the American psychiatric association included PMDD into the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, a reference manual for psychiatric diagnosis.”
“So what does the evidence actually show? During PMS women will experience certain physical symptoms, including cramps, breast tenderness, and water retention, and of course these physical symptoms can make some women feel grumpy or unhappy, just as pain can make men feel grumpy or unhappy. But emotional symptoms associated with menstruation – notably, irritability and depression are rare.”
I think the key is what is discussed later, that the biological changes occurring during menstrual period have been pathologized (if there is such a word), either mentally or physically, via science or cultural myths. This same author, who is clearly trying to discuss PMS (S does not mean syndrome, but State from my perspective) from another perspective, uses the word “symptom” as if it was a sickness, just as the mental professionals did.
Perhaps if we didn’t think of the menstrual process so negatively (we even hide, or are greately embarrassed when a spot shows up in our clothing), we would not see those physical changes as an illness (“symptoms”), but as a physical “state” that we need to accommodate differently, to a more or less degree. Perhaps many of the “symptoms” would go away if there was not such negative and taboo perceptions about “menstruation” itself which make us feel so uncomfortable. I remember a joke I saw somewhere that a teen ager put a tampon in her keyholder so that her younger brother would not take her car…and it worked!!!
“If the mood swings associated with PMS are so uncommon, then why do so many women think they have it? According to a Canadian psychology text; one of the reasons could be because women tend to notice the feelings of depression or irritability when these moods happen to occur premenstrually but overlook times when such moods are absent. .. Cultural attitudes and myths about menstruation can also influence a woman’s perceptions of her own emotional ups and downs.
Major findings from other psychological research and studies have concluded that:
No gender differences exists in mood.
No relation exists between stage of the menstrual cycle and emotional symptoms
No consistent “PMS” pattern exists across menstrual cycles.”
First, I apologize to the good men out there for the following comment:
The ONLY difference between men of any political persuasion is one wants to ‘give you the right’ to abort the baby and one doesn’t.
As a proud woman who does not put up with shit from anyone, the men on the left have ALWAYS been far worse than the men on the right. The men on the left have no moral base, and their progressive, humanist, or whatever approach gives them the right to do anything. At least with the men on the right you can hold up GOD when all else fails and unless they want to admit that they are TOTAL hypocrites you have them by those things that hang between their legs.
And, for the record, what the left men did to Hillary and those who voted for her (i.e the MAJORITY OF AMERICANS) will make me a lifetime NEVER GONNA VOTE DEMOCRAT AGAIN. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER. Can’t do it people. It was the betrayal of a lifetime and the truest example of how empty the democratic agenda is. I still cannot believe it all happened. And I still cannot write about it and not cry. But please do not take my tears as tears of weakness, but rather tears of anger each one representing more strength than the whole of the democrappy party. While I may not be happy with the Clintons now (and I am not), she won and she was treated like shit. As were all women whether they want to acknowledge it or not.
Every time I vote for a Republican, which I will until every Democrat is out of office, it is a vote against the evil. And then I will vote Independent and for women, which will be a vote for the good. I just hope we have enough time to turn it all around.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, the true and only 44th President of the USA. God bless her and God help America.
Not sure why but this post immediately came to mind when I saw this one:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthin.....ia-silent/
Sigh.
Hey, I’m a pre-menonpausal female and I can be a real you-know-what sometimes just from the hormone swings. Real ones. And there really is some truth to that old saying that if the powers that be wanted to win wars, then they’d send the menopausal old ladies after the enemies. Because hell truly would have no fury like all that intensity directed at one target.
However, all that said, I’ve seen more irrational and illogical behavior from men over the course of my life than I’ve ever seen from the majority of women, puberty to change of life, and supposedly men don’t have hormones to blame. Or if they do, those particular hormones are present in them pretty much all the time, day in, day out…
So, really, who should we be trusting in positions of authority, running th world and such?
BevWKY,
What if your mood swings have nothing to do with being peri-menopausal, but everything to do with you’ve reached that age where you’ve had enough and just don’t want to take it anymore? There are real physical symptoms that go along with going through menopause, and some of them can be annoying, but I’m willing to bet money that when those symptoms pass, and they will, you’ll still be mad as hell, and some days you’ll be madder than others. Not because of your hormones, but because you’ve acquired wisdom that comes with age. We need to stop treating menopause like a mental illness, too. It’s just a physical passage from one stage of life to another.
Bruce: The Democrats are even OK with Democrat women being treated unfairly, they never stood up for Hillary. They are quick with their outrage if any racial or class slurs might have been uttered but think sexist slurs reflect the reality of life. Democrats essentially told Hillary to sit down and shut up by not allowing a real vote at the Democrat convention. Democrats are also blind to their ignorant behavior and their mocking of female candidates does exactly what they expect it to do and that is create a barrier for women to have to climb over and also give the sexists a barrier to hide behind.
The woman who wrote and gave this speech is one of the many women who are willing to degrade themselves and other women to gain their little niche in the patriarchy. They value belonging above all else. It is not worth arguing with this kind because they are people who do not hold deep beliefs or values. They just regurgitate what they hear, they can’t think. So when women are able to crawl out from under the lid that is being forced on us by both political parties these types will have no problem joining up with the new dominant belief system. What the women’s movement needs to do is gain more power not waste their time changing the minds of followers as they will change their own minds when they perceive a change in power.
But I completely understand your frustration and I am glad you wrote this article.
I also think it would be funny to write a speech on testosterone poisoning and the problems it has caused in the world and see if the audience finds that just as funny. You know, bring in the fact that all male domestic animals in all societies, besides the one breeder are castrated because farmers don’t want to deal with the irrational, violent, territorial and belligerent behavior caused by male hormones. And also the fact that in many species the males only exist for brief periods seems to show a diminishing of maleness in the natural world. You could stack up quite a list of little facts and see if anyone calls you out.
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