Word: chesler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Women often work as volunteers, claiming their "help" is needed, without examining what these activities satisfy in themselves. Chesler and Goodman have found that the average female volunteer believes that she is not really worth taking seriously. She shirks being judged by "professional" standards, being fired, reprimanded or competed with. "She is a 'good' woman: although she is working outside her home, everyone knows that most female volunteers are primarily loyal to their families--and not to their unpaid volunteer work...
...sexual experience A woman is supposed to let sex sort of happen to her. Traditionally, she's not supposed to want to make sex; nor, as a wife, is the woman traditionally allowed to make money. In her domestic role she is supposed to provide sexual services, among others. Chesler and Goodman note the stigma that results when the married woman's usual duties are connected with money--both the prostitue and the maid are commonly labeled low-class creatures. In a pretty devious way, a predominant feminine image turns out not to mix with a yen for money...
...their bodies and their sexuality. Sometimes it seems hard to get men to listen to a woman unless she humbles herself a little--there are too many jokes about the shrewish type. When a woman says no, her body tends to find ways to soften or deny her words; Chesler and Goodman call it using her body "deferentially." She adopts certain mannerisms as a way for daring to threaten, rather than to put men at their ease. It is more acceptable for women than men to behave childishly, thereby rendering themselves less imposing as sexual beings...
According to Chesler and Goodman, "Touching' is one way of signifying power: economic power in general and sexual power, the droit du seigneur." While this may sound overly ominous, men, whether they like the role of aggressor or not, seem to touch more readily. The boss can wrap a paternal arm around a female's shoulder without seeming too forward. If she returned the gesture, the scene would become an embarrassment or a joke; only by this reversal would its essential presumptuousness or plain silliness come out. A woman who acts this way might be tagged a flirt--a demeaning...
...cosmetics and clothing industry and their advertising, by fashion magazines or even blatantly exploitive pulp like Viva and Playboy. The result of this obsession with every wrinkle, fold of flesh and smell seems to be low body-esteem, increased insecurity, regardless of how attractive they actually are. Chesler and Goodman cite a 1973 study in which female and male college students were asked to "write down the amount of money you would ask in compensation for each part of your body that was lost." The women sold themselves cheaper--they thought their eyes, for example, were worth a median dollar...