This really, REALLY gets my goat.
(Man asked to remove his top during a talent show audition)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… If this were a woman who had a great rack, we’d all mentally congratulate her and admire her attributes, possibly even be a bit jealous and remember a time when we had better tits, before age and children made them sag, wither or entirely disappear.
But if an audience of mainly men was wolf-whistling and shouting for her to take her top off, there would be absolute fucking uproar. The TV programme would get loads of complaints, from furious people saying that we should judge her by her singing talent and not her other ‘assets’.
So why the fuck do we think it’s acceptable to reverse it and treat men this way?
If you didn’t see this on Let it Shine, BBC1, I’ll explain. This man, Harry, walked out on stage to an almost instant reaction from the panel and audience about the way he looked. Before he spoke people were whistling and fanning their faces. He was asked to show his torso, and he said he would if the judges gave him a high score for his singing performance.
Why the fuck should he feel he needs to make such a promise? It’s like a sleazy casting couch, but in public, and celebrated on prime time TV!
I see so many articles about how we make women feel that their appearance is all that matters and we need to change that perception. Young girls thinking they have no worth if they don’t have a flat tummy, perfect tits and a thigh gap. We all know it’s wrong. We all know that we need to tackle this.
We have already seen a massive movement away from the Miss World competitions, Benny Hill characters and Carry On films of olden days. People are tackling the magazines, cat walks and beauty industry to use ‘real women’ in campaigns and stop the body shaming. We’re better than that now. We know that we respect women for what they can DO, instead of how they look.
So again, why the hell do we think it’s acceptable for us to reverse it and treat men this way now.
I can appreciate when a man looks good. I can appreciate a woman looks good. I might comment on it, the same way I would comment if someone is funny, clever or talented. I would not ever ask or set any expectation them to remove their clothes in public, so I could get a better look.
Here are the times it is OK to ask a stranger (male or female) to remove their clothes so you can get a better look:
- When you are a medical expert who needs to examine them
- In a bra fitting service of an underwear shop
- In a strip show where the person has made it perfectly clear that they have consented to show their body during their performance.
The point is, if we get angry when women are subjected to ‘sexist taunts’, we have to be angry when it happens to men.
That’s what equality means. Equal. Treated the same.
Unbalanced Woman 