Last week, Baruti Artharee—policy director for Mayor Charlie Hales—introduced Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith to a crowd like this: “Here’s our beautiful commissioner, Loretta Smith—mmm, mmm, mmm—she looks good tonight.”
Sometimes I feel like straight men don’t understand that sexual harassment at an after-work party or a bar or a (gasp) comedy club still counts as sexual harrassment. That glass of wine in your hands isn’t some magical potion that renders your “would look better on the floor of my bedroom” comments any less objectifying.
Smith had to go on stage after this introduction, to command attention and remind people that she was a professional there to do her job. And from what I can tell about commissionering, that job mostly consists of having Batman come in and out of your windows unannounced, which is scary enough already.
One time I saw a male comedian (you’ve heard of them, yes?) introduce a woman as “really sexy, and she makes my nipples hard.” The woman didn’t address it and didn’t comment on it, because maybe she isn’t fueled with the fiery angry temper that keeps my red highlights intact. But that kind of comment as an introduction really taints the audience against a performer, because it sets one up as an object to be viewed, not a human being. If you introduce a woman as a sexual object (or any kind of object, even a magickal object like a wand or cauldron) the audience is less likely to give her the respect that she deserves.
Men often introduce me on stage with compliments about my looks like, “Your next comedian is super cute and adorable,” and I’m like listen, nephew you mispronounced the words “hilarious comedy
prodigy.” Introducing a woman in a professional setting with comments about her looks strips her of her agency and credentials.
I hate when I complain about this and male comedians are like, “I WISH someone would introduce ME as an object.” No, you don’t. And even if you did, it would not be the same. It sucks to be identified by your most base bodily attributes when you’re trying to assert yourself and deliver a message. One time I got introduced as “a really cute girl” and the first thing that flew out of my smartass mouth was, “Hey, yes, I am a talking head attached to a vagina. So, here are my well written jokes now…”
Women are taking up more space socially, professionally, politically, and emotionally. It is amazing! We should celebrate with a piñata full of hugs! The only reason people try to reduce us to our physical attributes instead of our emotional strength is because they’re scared of us, scared that if they allow us to assert our power they will have to compete with us and they will lose. But guess what? We don’t need anyone to allow us to take up space. We can take up outer space if we want, because I think it would be otherworldy awesome to hang out on the moon.
Barbara, your standup seems to be divided about the same as your posts here, i.e. 75% joke-free observations about misogyny. You can obviously do whatever you want to do, but in my (male) opinion, that’s a pretty wearying mix for an audience member who wants to stay with you to the funny parts.
Also: “The only reason people try to reduce us to our physical attributes instead of our emotional strength is because they’re scared of us, scared that if they allow us to assert our power they will have to compete with us and they will lose.” Yeah, that’s wrong. You’re giving dumb guys WAY too much credit. When a dumb guy objectifies verbally, what’s really happening is he’s just thoughtlessly revealing what’s in his head as the most salient feature about that person.
No one is “trying” to do anything. They are “succeeding” in accidentally revealing that they are idiots whose largest mental concern is sorting the world into fuckability hierarchies (so literally “fuckwits”).
I guess it’s more fun to think of patriarchy as some crafty villain, but I think the actual evil is infinitely more banal than that.
So, sexual harassment is confined to only straight men?
@1: Many men who introduce women this way are not complete idiots. President Obama, for example. Clearly there are intelligent men who still think that the best compliment they can give a smart, accomplished woman is that she looks good. Though not everyone may be doing this with a conscious malicious intent, there is still something insidious going on when a man who PERSONALLY KNOWS a woman’s background and achievements will still introduce her this way.
Patriarchy is absolutely a crafty villain. That doesn’t mean that all men are gathering together in secret to decide how they will oppress women. It means that wherever women go, even when they think they’re in a safe place (like when a trusted male colleague is introducing them, for example), shit like this happens to remind them that they are inferior.
Idiots are gonna be idiots, sadly, especially when they’re male comedians, so a collection of prepared insults might be useful:
“…she makes my nipples hard.”
“Thanks, Eric. If something of yours actually managed to get hard, I guess the reports I’ve heard are wrong.”
Gonna say it: fear probably isn’t the main motivator leading to guys saying this sort of thing. I’d go with “ignorance” way before that.
These … columns (?) are getting real close to the “Women be shoppin’!” in reverse.
Let’s all just apologize for sexist men, because they don’t know any better! Ignorance always makes oppression and objectification okay.
I’m so sick of this crap.
Er, no. Ignorance doesn’t make it okay, and that’s not what I said.
Yeah, no one’s apologizing for anything.
It’s appropriate to tear down the actions of shitty men; it’s a waste of time to tear down straw men.
Were you gracious enough to thank the wind-up chattering jockstrap for the intro?