MARTHA STEWART CLAIMS A GENDER DOUBLE STANDARD...

...WHERE NONE EXISTS

LAST NIGHT ON "20/20" (March 5, 2004) Martha Stewart was asked by Barbara Walters what she had to say about being seen as short-tempered and abusive to underlings. She replied, "I think that sometimes I may be insensitive, but I have a job to do … and I may sometimes really think that others should work as hard as I work or concentrate as much as I concentrate. But those traits and that behavior, if it were applied to a man, would be admirable. Applied to a woman, you know, she's a 'beetch.'"

     Do you see what Stewart just did here? She quickly and artfully side-stepped the charges of being short-tempered and abusive, by describing herself as just a hard-working boss who is maybe sometimes insensitive only because she expects her employees to work as hard as she does.

     She then removed herself farther from the hot-seat by shifting the topic from herself to that ever-popular scapegoat, men. And yet she is right when she says these same traits and behavior -- hard-working with high expectations of self and underlings -- are admired in men. She is wrong, however, not to have admitted that they are also admired in women, especially by women's bosses. But a short temper and abusiveness, which are the labels attributed to and ignored by Stewart, are not admired in either male nor female bosses. Instead of directly addressing "short-tempered and abusive," Stewart deflected these criticisms by morphing them into entirely different, far-less-harsh descriptions of her behavior. She then used the morphed descriptions of herself to assail the "admiration" she says would come to men who can be described in the same way.

     Since Stewart side-stepped the terms "short-tempered and abusive," I'll address them. To me, admiration was always the last thing to come to mind when I was around a short-tempered, abusive boss of either sex. I have always thought, and always will think, of short-tempered, abusive bosses as nothing more or less than bastards, or, yes, "beetches" in the case of female bosses. Have you ever heard anyone at work or elsewhere say of a short-tempered, abusive boss, "Gee, I really admire him/her." Most people, the minute they're away from such bosses, rip them apart.

     Stewart clearly tried to come across as the put-upon, woe-is-me, victimized female. Her response to Walters was a tired, clichéd attempt to dodge criticism of her behavior on the basis that she is a woman and shouldn't be held to the same standards as similarly behaving men. She reminds me of some other ideological feminists in like situations. When the perks and privileges are handed out, women such as Stewart demand to be treated like men. But when they land in hot water, they want to invoke female privilege of less harsh treatment. Many men are growing very weary of this tactic, this give-me-rights-but-don't-hold-me-accountable approach to gender equality encouraged by many feminists in the media like Barbara Walters, who let Stewart get away with creating distortions and a double-standard that exists only in her mind.

(P.S.: Now that Stewart has been found guilty of the four remaining charges, I hope that at her sentencing, her female judge will treat her exactly as she treats men who commit similar violations of the law. I don't think reasonable people of either sex would want it any other way.)

tags: martha stewart  barbara walters  gender double standard  

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