A local Boston coffee shop has a picture of the face of Marilyn Monroe on the door of its women's restroom, and a picture of the face of Einstein on the door of its men's restroom.
The Einstein picture is:
I got the picture from the Internet.
Is the coffee shop being sexist by saying that Marilyn Monroe wasn't as smart as Einstein, or am I being sexist by thinking that not only is that what's being implied but that what's also being reinforced is the idea that women only need to be beautiful and men only need to be smart and to have a sense of humor to be considered perfect specimens of their genders? The pictures aren't where they are to insult the customers, are they? They are meant to be friendly, or at least not unfriendly.
It's interesting that it doesn't seem to have occurred to the management of the place that a picture of a person with his or her tongue out on the door of a restroom might be construed by some people as offensive. I think that could be because the cultural assumption is that women are always the objects of assessment for sexual attractiveness, and men never are. The picture on each door is meant to be an identifier rather than to imply something observational from the person in the picture toward the person who sees the picture.
The world might never know how intelligent Marilyn Monroe was or wasn't. By most accounts, she was increasingly saddened toward the end of her life by never being taken seriously as an actress or as a person.
As for Einstein; if there are "Sexy Einstein" pictures, it seems to me that someone has them well guarded.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, August 23, 2015 @ 12:02 p.m.
