Sexism Against Women By Sam Polk Summary

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The author of this article, Sam Polk, talks about sexism against women in not only in wall-street but in the workforce overall. Polk started off really strong by pointing out how men degrade and objectify women as soon as they’re out of earshot. He also picked on how negatively women are affected by these so called ‘bro-talks’; they either quit their job or sue the company. He also briefly explained the mental effects of ‘bro talks’ not only on women but also men. He explained that men tend to look down on women at work because if you are so used to ridiculing something/someone your whole life it’s tough to try and take them seriously when they are either your boss or subordinate at work. Then, Polk goes back in time and gives us a brief history of how he too used to objectify women as a teenager. He saw that objectifying women was and is still seen as a rite of passage to manhood. Polk then brings up an excuse as to why men in wall-street don’t stand up for their female co- workers. He reveals that some men decide to go with the ‘bro-talk’ because they don’t want to be singled out. Since objectifying women is the norm, these men would be considered social outsiders if they decided to stand up for women and they might even lose their jobs because their job rankings depend on how well they socialise with clients(which mainly consists of the objectifying and sexualizing of the women around). Around the end of the article Polk tells his readers that he now has a baby girl to raise and he never realized what a terrible world she’s going to grow up in. His final paragraph touches on a few ways men could amend the ways they treat women not only at work but everywhere else. Polk wrote this article with deep emotional afflictions. From the way that he had to keep his mouth shut whenever a coworker commented on a woman’s body to the way that he cried his eyes out when he found out he had a daughter that would have to live in such a cruel world. Polk is emotionally connected to the contents of this article as it contains his past, present and future. Due to this reason, the tone of the article started off emotional and temperamental, but then around the end it changes and becomes more powerful and profound. The man who couldn’t speak up before, all of a sudden starts pointing out every way that sexism is harming women's overall potential at success. Instead of just relieving and regretting what had occurred in the past, Polk starts bringing up different ways that society could amend the sexism that is taking place in the workforce. I had mixed feelings when I began to read this article but the further I went the more unfavourable it became. …show more content…
In the beginning I was glad that a successful man was admitting that sexism is very pronounced in high-power workplaces and that it is a huge obstacle to a woman’s success. By the end of the article, I was very disappointed that it took this man having a daughter for him to finally want the world to change into a better place. It made the author seem very selfish. It almost seemed that to the author the misogyny and objectification of women was just background noise up until he had a daughter. And all of a sudden, he realized how disgusting and unfair the world is to women and now he wants it to change just because his precious daughter is bound to face it. Another part of this article that infuriated me was the section about the Yale frat boys that went around school yelling “No means yes, yes means anal.”. I wasn’t disgusted by what the Yale boys had said; after all this is expected from fraternities with all the sexual assault and rape charges they face each year. What disgusted me was the author’s response to it. Mr. Polk was disgusted for a minute by what they had done but then quickly switched sides and almost excused their behavior by saying the act was just done out of “thrilling camaraderie”. This is exactly the type of responses that lead to men assuming it’s okay to say these types of obscene sentences. By giving these boys excuses, people need to understand that

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