Most chauvinists seek to degrade women to elevate themselves. Unfortunately all caustic remarks ever do is draw attention to the inferiority and cynicism resting within a man's heart and mind. Demeaning witticisms and fake endearments escape with every breath some men take. That's why my husband makes a crumby chauvinist.
He doesn't make snide comments about women or use cunning innuendo to drive home a point. His words are what they are...no more no less. He doesn't sit around thinking of ways to manipulate a conversation to his advantage. In fact, he is almost naive to the point of embarrassing when others are trying to manipulate him. (Except with me...he's already got my number.)
He doesn't find it beneath him to "do women's work." He's not above scrubbing a toilet or picking up a pair of pantyhose when he stops on the way home from work. He isn't bothered by what others think when he lets his granddaughters comb his thinning hair into peaks and dress it with bows. And he is not the least bit concerned about having me handle the checkbook, nor does he worry when others tease him that his wife "handles the pursestrings". People can think what they want to think and he goes on being Bob, just like he is---without a moment's hesitation or regret.
He doesn't diss his mother or tell mother-in-law jokes. He supports his daughter to the hilt. He doesn't care that everyone knows he'll run at the drop of a hat to do something she asks of him, nor that she owns a gigantic place in his heart. He does not argue with women or curry any favors with empty flattery.
It takes little respect for women and less for oneself to be chauvinistic. It takes arrogance and complete disregard of the way God loves women to set oneself on a pedastal of dictatorship. In fact it takes little effort at all to be less than the man God called man to be when He gave him "woman" for companionship and help. Some men aren't able to sacrifice their egos for their spouses, let alone their lives. My husband makes a lousy chauvinist because he never was a slacker at anything and his ego was parked somewhere long ago. That makes this lousy feminist quite happy. selahV
[© SelahV Today, 2008]