The 'Women Today Poll' in The Irish Times today promised to shed some pinkish light on what women really, really think. Not a lot, is the answer. Curiously, 57% of women counted 'personal care (skin/hair)' as "very important", while 54% cited their 'husband/boyfriend' as "very important." Apart from the presumption that a woman's only option of partnership is said 'husband/boyfriend', does this mean we really, really value invisible pores and the prevention of split ends more than lurve?
It's hard to fathom that this is the case. (Although this is coming from someone who doesn't own a hairdryer.)
9% said politics were "very important", 19% said feminism was "very important", although 'equality of the sexes' - the nu-feminism - got a gasping 44% in the "very important" stakes.
And at the top of the "very important" chart at 65% was 'financial independence'.
You'd wonder if some of the options posed on this poll ('taking care of children', 'how others see me', 'personal care', 'female friends', 'work in the home') would be posed in a poll of what men really, really think. By allowing for such - what the authors clearly thought were - gender-specific questions, of course you're going to end up with results that portray women as insecure little things obsessed with how they look and who they surround themselves with.
Am I being too harsh, or was the poll today an accurate portrayal of the thoughts and desires of the modern Irish woman?
It's hard to fathom that this is the case. (Although this is coming from someone who doesn't own a hairdryer.)
9% said politics were "very important", 19% said feminism was "very important", although 'equality of the sexes' - the nu-feminism - got a gasping 44% in the "very important" stakes.
And at the top of the "very important" chart at 65% was 'financial independence'.
You'd wonder if some of the options posed on this poll ('taking care of children', 'how others see me', 'personal care', 'female friends', 'work in the home') would be posed in a poll of what men really, really think. By allowing for such - what the authors clearly thought were - gender-specific questions, of course you're going to end up with results that portray women as insecure little things obsessed with how they look and who they surround themselves with.
Am I being too harsh, or was the poll today an accurate portrayal of the thoughts and desires of the modern Irish woman?
6 comments:
Ironically, just today, I saw a blog post complaining about the Equality Authority's issues with depiction of women in the media.
But yes, silly, silly survey. You have to wonder where it was taken; I'm inclined to suspect the makeup counter at a department store. :)
And what, precisely, is the difference between 'feminism' and 'equality of the sexes'? 'Feminism' seems to have become a dirty word of late, for some reason...
By the way, have you seen the media reports claiming that a scientific study proves that women are genetically inclined to like pink? ;)
To be honest it sounds like you're caring too much. It's only a poll in a newspaper, these things are designed to get people up in arms.
I don't think you were being harsh. Crap questions.
And I don't own a hairdryer either!
That poll just confirmed that women are a strange breed. Miriam O Callaghan and Sinead o Connor featured as women who serve as role models to those surveyed. Jaysusssssss.
Yeah, I wrote a column on that pink thing a while ago, but I can't find the link to it (because I'm a girl)
"To be honest it sounds like you're caring too much. It's only a poll in a newspaper, these things are designed to get people up in arms."
I'm not up in arms, I'm just commenting on something.
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