tying back in to my previous post about the male gaze distorting reality - the image of a rich woman is used as the ultimate symbol of laziness, frivolity, even depravity
this is something that's always bothered me about pink floyd's music video for "money". the lyrics all mention male-dominated areas of money, especially in the 70s: buying a football (soccer) team, buying a lear jet, buying a new car. some of it is gender neutral (asking for a rise/raise, caviar, four-star hotels). but it's fair to say the song is critiquing a particular male set of people - capitalists
yet the music video shows about as many rich women as it shows rich men. in fact, while the rich men are often doing something (driving a car), the women just get glamor shots. the rich women are wearing mink coats, descending staircases in tennis dresses. there's a repeated shot of a woman who's just jumping around with big hair (2:00-2:12) interspersed with shots of working class people. uh, why? are women with blowouts the real evil running society?
this perplexed me for years until i realized that a lot of people view rich women as being inherently worse than rich men. a man told it to me so: "a rich man may be evil, but at least he presumably did something to earn his money. a rich woman does nothing but marry a rich man or be born to a rich father and can live a life of leisure. that's why she's [perceived as] worse."
despite the fact women were economically dependent on men lest they fall into destitute poverty, men still envy the tiny tiny slice of society that is (looks at cards) women born to rich parents, or women who marry rich men. They become the embodiment of the indolent and aristocratic rich, because they don't even have the gall to pretend to earn their money. Men can't marry into money, they have to earn it! ignore that men can also be born into money. ignore also that women have been systematically prevented from earning money in the way men do such that single rich women basically didn't exist. this is inequality.
once again, it all comes down to men's fear of sexuality. it's not fair that women can use their sexual allure to marry rich and i have to work! and this is also how you can rope women into the scheme too: it's not fair that these hussies are golddigging while i have to settle for an average man! it's not fair that women more sexually attractive to me are out there, because they could steal my meal ticket only source of affection husband! and so the myth of the evil indolent woman using her sexuality, created by men, becomes a fear for women, too.
under the male supremacist mindset: men act, women are. men earn their money. women 'are' rich and this makes them worse than the men who trampled on poorer men to get their money.
titsay
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
origamiaround
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