I don't know how this particular protest worked out, but I don't think it ever became a larger movement. Still I wonder, what was there about chest hair that offended these women? They didn't seem to have a problem with hairless chests -- you know, men who look like boys.
It reminded me of the story we reported last year when Britain's most popular theme park banned men from wearing the dreaded Speedos. Among the lessons to be gleaned from that little incident were the following: when women are told to cover up on airplanes (obviously because their attire will engender arousal among the male clientele), the feminists had a conniption, and the airline backed down, because the issue was framed in terms of discrimination against women. But when men are told to cover up, obviously because some women think the sight of male bulges are "gross" (not "arousing," mind you), everybody is just fine with it, no one dares scream "discrimination," and the arbiters of all things gender-related -- the cackling hens who write features articles for major dailies -- give it their blessing because they don't want to see men wear Speedos. Never mind that some men want to wear them (for reasons that are none of my business).
But let's flash back to the flashback for a moment: the women's movement to get men to cover up their chests obviously never took off. And this failure was rather strange because there were strong forces of morality at work to compel men and boys, hairy or not, to cover up. It might seem strange to us, but into the 1930s, it seems, many people considered it immoral for men and boys to walk around shirtless. In fact, some youths were arrested for baring their chests. This is an article from Pittsburgh in the mid-30s:
Just think how far our notions of morality have come since then. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. But here, in the year 2010, some of the boys primp and preen as much as the girls, and some of them seem to want to be objectified. Is that good or bad? None of my business. But here's what we've come to -- and this may not be safe for work -- the home page for Abercrombie for Kids, a store that supposedly targets consumers 7-16 years old.
Yikes. I don't know what to say about that link, except we've gone from teen guys being arrested for playing ball shirtless to teen guys' bodies being sold like commodities in the marketplace. I'm wondering if it deserves to be called "progress."
Now I'm sounding like those damn women's groups trying to get the guys to cover up. Sorry. I'll have to watch myself.
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The feminist myth is that prior to the nineteen amendment, women were helpless victims living at the mercy of their tyrannical husbands and fathers.
In fact, much "social reform" was always driven by female busybodies who were out to establish their moonbat visions of utopia by restricting the freedoms of men. Their most notable accomplishment was Prohibition, which was a disaster for America.
Prior to modern feminism -- which replaced the old religion with the new -- women did most of their meddling through church organizations. Now they sit at home and watch Oprah.
Anon at 5:47: I think you're right. Women have always been the gatekeepers of civility and social "morality," it seems. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject -- we have a lot of readers who understand this stuff a lot better than I do. I just found the article about the hairy chest protest hilarious, and then a small amount of research showed that this shirtless thing was deemed to be a decency issue.
http://remasculation.blogspot.com/2010/04/white-womans-burden.html
To quote myself,
"The need to exert control over the behaviour of others is apparently the driving force of rich white women's activism. From the lynching of black men, to the prohibition on alcohol, to the destruction of cultures from within, their goal is to enforce their monocultural values upon the entire universe, with every square inch of non-feminist space crushed and grounded down into submission. Even historical facts must bend to this mission, and I do suspect that feminists will continue their long silence on the horrendous roles that their own sisters played e.g. in the Ku Klux Klan. If they could, they would simply brush these facts under the rug, as uncomfortable as they are, and more importantly, as inconsistent as they are with the maxim that it is men who oppress women and not the other way around.
Ultimately, rich white women cannot succeed. Like a tumor which feasts on living tissue, it relies upon the life support system which it systematically destroys. Feminism, utterly reliant in practice on the products of men's labours, alienates more men with each new regulation it places on their behaviour. The white woman's burden is that she may have to powerlessly watch as people and cultures do as they please, without regard to her complaints."
By the way, the Chef is one of those people who understands these issues more than I do.
P.S. don't forget to use your moderation powers when you see something that requires it, Chef.
I must write. I must write much more. So many things have become clear to me recently and I can see the way that this horrendous ideology can be overturned.
But, wouldn't you know it? My life has become so much more busy in the last month, with no signs of it letting up (in fact, it may become moreso soon).
I shall have to start dedicating weekends to this ...
"Women's group tries to ban hairy-chested men from pool"
Ban THEM. Problem solved. This thread is a good argument to support an all men's health club, pool, weight room, etc. It worked 100 years ago and it can work today.
On topic for the off-topic post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdeBp8J0rqs
Yeah, that Abercrombie -- who does Abercrombie Kids appeal to? Holy cow!
I think that men deserve a place to go where they can be free from false rape accusations. And if the feminist troublemakers are genuinely concerned about rape, they won't mind if men go to all-male clubs.
They didn't seem to have a problem with hairless chests -- you know, men who look like boys.
Women are by and large narcissists. Women thus being the standard of beauty, they do not want men to look like boys, they want men to look like women.
"Women are by and large narcissists. Women thus being the standard of beauty, they do not want men to look like boys, they want men to look like women."
I don't think that is true at all, and I doubt that these women who protested were representative of the majority of women.
Also, considering the when this occurred, it could have had a an ethnic component -- whitebread women objecting to Italians, Jews, etc.
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