filed in Myths and stereotypes
Man-Eating Women. Really?
I’ve been on a rant since seeing the ad campaign for Horrible Bosses, a film opening next Friday. On billboards and bus shelters, I see posters of Jennifer Aniston, in a revealing black dress, with the giant-sized, all-capped, fuchsia letters, MANEATER. I hate that word. According to the Oxford Dictionary, man-eater was first used in print to describe a woman as sexual predator in 1906, at about the time of Teddy Roosevelt and trumpet-shaped corsets. Women weren’t supposed to have sexual desire, and any hint was perceived as carnivorous. How about if we toss that term into the dustbin of history, along with underwear that hampered our breathing?
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I’m all for it, and how about, while we’re at it, getting rid of the expression “woman of a certain age”? What age is that, anyway? Is that a woman of 30? 40? 50?!! I’ve never heard the expression ” a man of a certain age”, and I have to wonder, why not…?