Here’s an interesting piece from NPR host Michel Martin. Using the example of a letter of complaint recently received from a listener, she briefly addresses a problem many women still struggle with on a daily basis: The idea that what men say, think, do or find interesting in is inherently interesting to everyone, while what women say, think, do or find interesting is inherently not of interest to a larger public audience (i.e. one that includes men.)
These sort of issues, though “less important” than many of the more dire and pressing issues Martin mentions, are really of great interest to me. As a fairly privileged, white, American woman who came of age in the 1990s I have been lucky to escape relatively unscathed by many of the uglier faces of misogyny. Nonetheless I’ve definitely struggled with the persistence of the many ways my culture, and even the most progressive of my close friends and family, often fall into the trap of thinking that what women say or do is less interesting, or less mainstream that what men say or do. And I’m not even into fashion.
Is this something that is getting better? How do you address it in your experiences?
~Kim Fleming