Sexism

So what is sexism?  I have been accused of being a sexist on this blog and in all honesty if you ask 100 people what sexism is you are going to get 100 different answers.  There has been a huge debate lately on whether holding the door for a lady or paying for a lady's meal is sexist.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion but I believe that those are manners taught to us.  Women have not been given the same liberties in this country since the pilgrims first came in and settled with their own morals.  Women had their own family roles while men had theirs.  This is the way life was.  Women couldn't vote and they couldn't work.  The men were the bread winners of the family and so was life.  I am NOT saying that it is right.  I'm just saying that's the way it was.  Then came the women's rights activists like Susan B. Anthony in the late 19th Century who brought women's suffrage to the forefront of the United States culture. 

She was a pioneer and started a movement that helped lead to the 19th Amendment in 1920, allowing women the right to vote.  In the late 30's and early 40's women were asked to step in for men at the machine shops while the men were shipped to war.  Images like Rosie the Riveter became famous as the women kept production up to assist with the war. 

When the men came back, they also took a lot of their jobs back and women were asked to go back to the kitchens.  Obviously that was wrong, and it has been wrong since the days of the pilgrims as I have said.  Men have controlled women for years when they should have been on a level playing field.  Women then were allowed to get jobs like secretarial positions but they were in many cases sexually harassed and expected to do favors for male counterparts and bosses.  I watch Mad Men as you all know and it shows how women were mistreated terribly in office settings in the 60's.  In the 80's women started becoming heads of companies and although they weren't getting paid as much as their male counterparts progress was being made.  We almost had a female president in 2008.  Progress is being made and I am aware sexism still exists.  I know that some men look at women as lower than them and it truly is sad.  I'm not saying women don't have to deal with it everyday.  I have sympathized with them. I listen to their stories.  I damn well try to do something about it, but I still find it annoying to be accused of being a sexist for admitting to holding a door open for a lady or giving her my coat when she's cold or paying for her meal.  I never once in my life called a women a bitch.  It is disrespectful and degrading and I'd never do that, but people seem to put me in the same category, because I have values and beliefs that you should respect women, never cuss in front of them, and treat them like princesses because that's what they are.  I know they can hold a door open themselves but when you're on a date what is the problem with someone being a gentleman?  I just don't get it.  Extreme feminists will take anything one says to be sexist in some way.  I am not out of line in my beliefs as the extreme feminists are not out of line for believing that.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and to be honest the majority of females I have polled agree with me that it is a sweet gesture to hold a door open.  Are you considered offensive to an elderly person when you help them carry their groceries?  What about when you hold the door for a stranger at a restaurant? Is that inappropriate? No.  It's just polite.  If any of you know me, you know I am about as nice of a person as they come.  I don't have many enemies and I treat everyone with respect.  So please don't think I'm a sexist.  I never degrade women, unless paying for their meal is degrading but I just think it's polite.  If not we will agree to disagree and we will just never date obviously.  That as they say, is that. I'm finished defending myself.  My blogs will soon go back to the lighter side, and if you take offense to something I write, I'm sorry.  No one is forcing you to read.  Just please leave my character out of it, unless you know me.  Too many people are judgmental without knowing anything about someone else.  Get to know me then you can decide if I'm sexist.  Give me that chance. Until then, as Rodney King would say (God rest his soul), "Can't we all just get along?"