Looking At Women Scott Russell Sanders’s essay portrays men as sex crazed animals and uses the protagonist to illustrate men’s use of derogatory terms of men’s views of women, and even the little, “How should a man look at a woman?” , he suggests that men see women as something to look at. He portrays the males condition the idea of the types of men in today’s society. Sanders builds on the stereotypes of men by giving examples of men who fit these stereotypes. He believes that the stereotypes placed upon men today, restrain men and forces to follow a certain path in life blindly. He believes that men are victims of the stereotypes of society, and spend existence running from the so called failure of being outside of the norm. He is discuss in detail men’s role in society, and the ways in which stereotypes affect men today and he views men; whether men are victims, or actually chauvinist.
“How should a man look at a woman?” by Scott Russell Sanders’s essay, Looking at Women, he shows that men are rude and sexist in the ways regard to women. The first example Sanders uses portray this is when he was young and sees a high school girl with a good body. His friend refers to the girls body as if it were a car part, and According to ” On that sizzling July afternoon, the girl who crossed at the stoplight in front of our car looked, as my mother would say, as though she had been poured into her pink shorts.” It has never made any difference to me how much or little a girl’s clothing revealed, for my imaginations had been entirely devoted to other mysteries. I was eleven. The girl was about fourteen, the age of my buddy Norman who lounged in the back seat with me. Staring after her, Norman elbowed me in the ribs and murmured,”Check out that chassis” (251-252).
This sexist attitude progresses as Sanders goes to college and looks at the Playboy magazines and he comments on the way women’s humanity was severely reduced by such actions. He believes that a man look at women as objectives and makes judgments on their being before even examining their personality or spiritually. He wants men to change. He wants men to appreciate women’s inner beauty as much as men appreciate a women’s out beauty. Sanders treats a timely and loaded question: how the gaze, directed at women by the men, by construction workers as well as by artists, can reduce them to objectives of desire.
Sanders looks at men’s looking at women, and women’s being looked at. He wants to exempt on himself from reducing them to objects, to demonstrate that he views the point according to “That we as viewers see them not as sexual playing but as loved persons. A man would do well to emulate that gaze” (paragraph 31) (260).
He views the point rather then seeing women as sex objects or Babe dolls, he wants men to appreciate women’s natural beauty, without make up and lingerie. He also believes that women contribute to their dehumanization and he does not believe it is wrong for men to look at women or to a man look at a woman.
He just believes that men should be looking for different things in women than the stereotypical man look for. He believes that men should break away from their stereotypical mold and treat women with love and respect. He suggests the complexity of males other than his the complexity of female self-presentation. He believes society’s expectation for men to be masculine keeps them from getting in touch with their emotional self. The fact that women can be admired for being either masculine or feminine supports.
Women can break the mold of society and still be admired. Rather, the stereotypes of women are more inclusive of different lifestyles than the stereotypes of men. For another example, Basketball is a game that has evolved from a man with a peach basket and an idea into an entertaining sport that the world enjoys. The professional league added the Women’s National Basketball Association less than a decade ago, which is growing bigger every year. The NBA and WNBA have both evolved into successful basketball organizations. Both have large crowds and have both have fulfilled interest in their respective’s markets, but there are some major differences between the two.
When discussing the WNBA and NBA the first issue that comes up to how women can not play on the same levels as a man. Women play with the same intensity, practice just as long, put in the same hard long hour, and are in as good of conduction as men. According to “Lisa Leslie is one of the only women in the WNBA that can dunk, but because of the difference of women’s a men’s bodies the NBA has slam dunks and more interior game” (25).
This is due to the bigger and more athletic bodies. That is why men do not see as many women slam dunking or making the same identical move. The NBA does not allow zone defenses.
No zone defense means that every player must guard another straight up. The WNBA allows any type of defense on the court, which makes the game interesting and adds a special dimension. These defensive differences end up changing the offensive complexion of the game. The NBA players do much more isolation because instead of facing the team in a zone defense, the player is facing just on player. The WNBA players run more picks, more movement, and have more team basketball.
However, Sanders uses illustrates the restrain put on men to admit their problems, and be in touch with thier feminine side. He would like men to break from the mold themselves and believes that men provoke the stereotypes placed on them. He wants men to strive to a woman or women, or to find their individuality, and get touch with men emotional self.