"This weekend, as I attempted to tidy to my house, I happened to notice the label inside my boyfriend?s trousers ? which he had strewn across the floor of our bedroom.
Upon picking them up, to throw them firmly onto ?his chair?, (my weekly way of telling him that he needs to put his clothes away), this large white label happened to catch my eye.
As expected, it detailed what temperature the trousers should be washed at. But then, I noticed, stiched in capital letters no less, the usually inoffensive washing instructions tag, offered a rather less appropriate cleaning option: ?OR - GIVE IT TO YOUR WOMAN, IT?S HER JOB?.
Now normally I am the type of person who can stomach, and often smile along, with a touch of what has just become known as casual sexist ?banter?. Having studied politics at university and shared a house with five testosterone-fuelled male students, I was schooled early-on in picking the battles worth fighting and knowing ?how to take a joke? ? even when it seemed like it was at the expense of my gender.
Usually sexist jibes, statements, or even t-shirt logos, have some kind of juvenile or puerile humour to them. There?s more often than not a slight hint of tongue-in-cheek that allows most women to just pass off the remark or slogan as ?stupid banter? ? even if they are seething inside. It?s just easier and we know it?s not meant with 'any real harm'.
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'Sexist trousers' spark Twitter row 06 Mar 2012
However, this crass message stitched onto the label in these cheap chinos from Madhouse, genuinely took me aback.
There was no attempt at wit, and unlike the Topman t-shirts, which offended so many with their brazen slogans to be worn across young men?s chests - this was a hidden message - or rather an order, intended to encourage women to reassume their once their ?proper place? (in the home) and young men to maintain the expectations of their grandfathers.
Even the language ? ?Your Woman? ? presupposed some kind of Neanderthal mentality from my boyfriend, an unwilling shopper after some affordable chinos ? preferably not lined with sexist imperatives.
When I posted a photo of the humourless trouser label onto Twitter yesterday, ironically two days before the 101st International Women?s Day ? I had no idea how large the reaction would be.
Suddenly I was inundated with both women and men calling for me to ?name and shame? the brand behind such a tasteless stitching.
Hundreds of tweeters were soon expressing their own shock at the washing instruction and letting me know that they would boycott Madhouse ? even though the majority of them had never heard of this discounts men?s clothing shop. The subject even started trending on Twitter.
But then, cue the predictable minority chorus of men telling me to ?lighten up? and ?learn how to take a joke? and the women who love to be 'one of the boys? and live in fear of being called a ?feminist?, informing me of how ?hilarious? the message was. One man told me not to "get my knickers in a twist" - which albeit patronising, was at least an attempt at humour.
And yet, that?s just it. If the comment had been remotely funny ? I would have been the first to laugh and shrug it off ? as it really wouldn?t have bothered me enough to photograph it, tweet it and then write about it. But it was the lack of any implied humour and the horrible surprise of such an incongruous message hidden away inside some trousers, that left me just plain stunned.
We really are in a bad place as a society when laughing something off has become virtually the only response to anything vaguely anti-female."
www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9125574/Sexist-trousers-are-below-the-belt.html
I too am sick of offensive anti-woman jokes and men saying O'h yes woman don't have a sense of humour! Any thoughts?