Jezebel VS The Daily Show: Pagan Perspective

Jezebel VS The Daily Show: Pagan Perspective July 8, 2010

Well, that’s not the story though. Actually 40% of The Daily Show staff are female. True, there weren’t any female writers on staff until recently, but then apparently there aren’t any men in the accounting dept either. Guess girls don’t find math all that hard after all, huh? Looks like the only hint of a scandal is Craig Kilborn cracking an off-color joke about a female co-worker, after which she resigned.

Oh, but what about the emphasis on looks? It’s TELEVISION. Quite frankly the men on The Daily Show are very groomed, well-coiffed and well-heeled. Kevin Smith, funny as he may be, couldn’t get a correspondent gig on The Daily Show. He doesn’t fit the look. Don’t want to be judged on your looks? Maybe acting isn’t for you.

What really got me though, was that the women they interviewed seemed to think that The Daily Show should have a nurturing environment in which they can be emotional and vulnerable. That this company should conform to their needs. That is feminist BS of the first order and my biggest beef with the women’s movement.

At 23, I was the project estimator/manager for a highway construction company. I was good at it. There is nothing more masculine than construction, so how did I manage? I certainly didn’t expect to be emotionally nurtured. I did my job. I learned the culture, I found the gender biases and I found how I could best work within that framework. I embraced the yang elements of the industry and eventually earned the respect of my colleagues and associates. When I did encounter actual sexism I either exploited it or ignored it.

I didn’t really have an issue with the men in my industry. We respected each other for our skills and reliability. I did have issues with some of the women in my industry. They tended to be emotional and unprofessional. They were rarely direct or reliable in an industry that required you to be both, and they felt they were slighted for their gender, rather than for their lack of necessary qualities. It was irritating to women like me, and there were a few of us, who had to not only push past initial gender biases to succeed, but to also have our female colleagues try to drag us down.

Continued —>


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