COLUMN: Society is less unequal now, but idiotic gender ideas remain

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by Nick Weller

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Friedan was one of the originators of the feminist movement and wrote The Feminine Mystique, which is often credited with beginning the feminist movement. Reading her book I was struck by how familiar her ideas were to me. I expected to be shocked at her radicalism; however, I was instead shocked by how familiar and acceptable the ideas were. After reading I wondered how much progress has been made in achieving her ideals.

On Dec. 30 I realized how far we still had to go. My father called and told me to listen to Tom Leykis' nationally syndicated radio show. Initially Leykis was discussing how women "whip" their boyfriends or husbands. Since it was pretty funny, I kept listening. Next thing I knew he was talking to a lawyer from New York named Rosalie Osias.

Osias wrote an op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times titled "Women Are Still Voting With Their Libidos." The point of her article was that the tremendous gender gap in the presidential election was because Bill Clinton is more attractive than Bob Dole. Osias said that women "were attracted to him. There was a sexual tension. They were enthralled with his sexuality."

Initially I thought she was perhaps satirizing the tremendous hype given the "Gender Gap" in the election. As I listened, however, I realized she was very serious.

The obvious implication was that women were not voting based on economic policy or social issues, but on physical attractiveness. This denigrates women and intimates that they are not capable of thinking when voting.

Even when people would call and explain their own policy-based reasons for electing Clinton, Osias would argue that at some level female voters were driven by Clinton's sex appeal. If this is true you might wonder how men like Strom Thurmond and Bob PAckwood win elections.

Osias did not just stop with this derogatory implication but continued to say that if women really want to achieve in the economic world they "need to unbutton the top of their blouse."

Osias claims that a woman's sexuality is her ticket to success in the business world. She uses advertisements for her law firm claiming that "Anytime, anyplace, anywhere, ANY POSITION she will close loans." Her ads included her holding a radio microphone in a suggestive manner, according to both Osias and Leykis.

Osias' ads and her attitude that sex is the way for women to succeed suggest that women can achieve success only through their sexuality and not through their abilities. Ultimately, this attitude will make it more difficult for women because their successes will be regarded as due to sexuality and not competency.

I recognize that Osias may be an isolated example, but she stated that after running her ads she received a tremendous amount of business.

Either a heck of a lot of people found this type of advertisement attractive or she did something else to gain customers. The fact that her business increased makes me wonder about how much progress our country has actually seen in creating equality of the sexes.

Even though the feminist movement is quite in the mainstream media, hearing someone like Osias suggests that sexual equality has a long way to go. While few of us would say we vote or decide whom to employ based on sex appeal, this show suggested to me that we need to evaluate how we make decisions regarding gender.

Are we treating members of the opposite sex equally, or are we simply partial to the person with the better smile or bigger breasts?

Nick Weller is the opinion editor and a Brown College sophomore.

This item appeared in the Opinion section of the January 17, 1997 issue.

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