Ever since John McCain announced his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, people have been looking ahead to her lone debate against Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden. And they have been speculating about how tough Biden will be on her and whether he might cross some nebulous, politically-correct line in the process. Strangely enough, though, no one seems to be concerned about whether Palin might “bully” Biden. I smell a double standard here.
In reality, Biden should not have to worry about any such dilemma. He should approach his debate with Palin just like he would if she were a man. I have no doubt that she is a tough lady who can take it and that she would probably feel patronized if Biden took it easy on her. But if she can’t take it, too bad. If some people cry foul, so be it. Biden, and the man at the top of the Democratic ticket, Barack Obama, should not be willing to kowtow to the conventional foolishness in order to win an election. I’m tired of our culture allowing some women to have it both ways. Either they’re equal to men or they’re not. If they’re not, then people should stop pretending that they are.
We see this kind of thing in other areas of society as well. I’ll often hear people say they worry more about our female prisoners of war than they do about the males. Why? If they are not prepared for that possibility, then they should be at home baking cookies instead of wearing the uniform of the United States. And why does the military not hold female soldiers to the same physical training standards as their male counterparts? They’re supposed to be the men’s equals, right?
Then we have those politically-correct TV commercials that depict women beating up on men (but never the other way around), as form of comic relief. A few years back, I sent an email to a well-known insurance company, complaining about one of those ads they were running. I asked if they would be willing to run a similar commercial, depicting a man brutalizing a woman. Their response was something to the effect of, “It’s just humor, can’t you take a joke?” Of course, had they took me up on my proposal, they would quickly have found out how many women and their advocacy groups would not have been able to take a joke.
I haven’t complained to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) about their latest TV ad, but they don’t deserve a penny of anyone’s money or a second of anyone’s time until they stop running it. In this ad, they humorously depict men as being so helpless that they need a boy from the BBBSA program to assist them with their daily tasks. Yeah, I know I should lighten up, but so should all of those women who would freak out if BBBSA ever ran a commercial that depicted women as helpless. Of course, we all know that no such ad would ever be produced. BBBSA, like so many other organizations and individuals in our culture, are slaves to politically-correct double standards.
Copyright 2008 CommenTerry
