It's well known that men don't have to worry nearly as much about how they look as women do. We're supposed to be decorative and attractive. To put it more bluntly, we're expected to do whatever we can to appeal to men.
At least it was that way until the 1960s or so, when women had had enough of being told we had to wear high heels and makeup and have our hairdos and fingernails professionally done (regularly and at great expense)--and not be caught with aging underwear if we happen to end up in the hospital unexpectedly!
And of course the makeup and the constant attention to our hair and nails meant we had to carry around paraphernalia to touch ourselves up ("powder our noses," so to speak).
So there was an obvious need for handbags. And anyway there were some of the unmentionables most women carry around for a large part of their lives--the menstrual hygiene supplies.
Handbags were an additional expense for us.
So here we were, spending vast sums on our appearance. Gym membership, weight control, specially designed clothes to enhance or shape our figures, jewelry, fragrances (because no woman could possibly smell OK without some help from the fragrance industry?)--the list goes on.
But women haven't been earning nearly so much as men, all along. For the housework/child care/etc. effort that housewives do, if we're lucky we receive our support. If we're not lucky, we get only housemaid's knee and other disorders.
What to do? Gotta have all of those appearance-enhancing products but can't afford them? Better find yourself a man with some earning power so you can afford them better.
OK. Let's say you've done that. But you're still under pressure to look young and svelte and appealing to the rest of the world--your kids, your other relatives, your neighbors, coworkers, friends, strangers on the street.
So now hubby is supporting you and your appearance-enhancements, maybe. But you don't like to be dependent.
So you try to rebel. You join movements to protest the unfair demands made on women and the unequal distribution of wealth. You like to think that those old ideas about women's role are on their way out.
But they're not, as the current Republican Presidential candidate clearly showed during Monday's debate, when his opponent brought up an episode from 1996, when Donald Trump harassed Miss Universe pageant winner Alicia Machado about her weight.
1996? That's 30 years
after the 1960s, the era of the women's movement.
And he's defending his attitudes right now, in
2016.
What are those attitudes? He stated that her weight had been "a problem."
What did Trump do to help Miss Universe in her struggle to meet society's expectations that she maintain her weight at an "acceptable" level?
Private scolding was apparently insufficient. Mr. Trump, who was an executive producer of the pageant, insisted on accompanying Ms. Machado, then a teenager, to a gym, where dozens of reporters and cameramen watched as she exercised.
Mr. Trump, in his trademark suit and tie, posed for photographs beside her as she burned calories in front of members of the news media. “This is somebody who likes to eat,” Mr. Trump said from inside the gym.
She was only 18 at the time. At one point he called her "Miss Piggy." Alicia Machado suffered from eating disorders for years after this public shaming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/us/politics/alicia-machado-donald-trump.html?_r=0I hope no woman will vote for Donald Trump. This account, along with many others about his shameful treatment of women and views about women, should be brought to the attention of anyone even thinking about casting a vote for him.