Tracey Spicer on society's expectations of women

Australian journalist and TV presenter Tracey Spicer gives an entertaining talk challenging women to consider how much time they spend on their daily routine and how that time might be better spent.

YouTube Description:

Tracey Spicer strips back her daily routine and challenges us all to use our time more productively. Tracey is a respected journalist who has worked for many years in radio, print and television.

You can follow Tracey on Twitter (@spicertracey) https://twitter.com/spicertracey

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In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
Trancecoachjokingly says...

It's a good thing that there are no concomitant expectations placed on men whatsoever with regards to their net worth, their financial independence, their capacities to support a family on their own without actually spending any time with their children or their wives and other relatives, their general athleticism, their own type of attractiveness -- their height, their weight -- their general aggressiveness, their machismo, their sensitivity, their emotionality, their stoicism, their bravery, their intelligence, their capacities to fix or build everything and anything, their overall dominance over others and themselves...

Plus, as a woman, she absolutely has no choice whatsoever in whether or not she participates in any of the social standards that she references here (or reinforces by her very appearance regardless of what she wears or puts on!)..

It's all imposed on her, and she has no say in the matter at all.. Good thing she's a victim and we men are here to protect and take care of her.

bareboards2says...

I kept thinking that if women who spend so much time on their appearance had more time, they'd probably just watch TV or mess with Facebook.

As for the wage disparity -- I think that might be other reasons why women who spend so much time on their appearance make less money. I suspect that they are just not that smart, rely on their looks to get by, and/or probably have pretty low self esteem which interferes with their ability to work to their highest potential. I suspect that confident, busy women don't obsess on their bodies like that.

I also don't understand why videos like this have to turn into a competition in the comment stream. Women have things they have to do to break free of their unconscious choices. That's just a human fact. Why bring up men's unconscious choices, @Trancecoach? I know you are joking (you checked the box!). However every time a vid like this shows up, SOMEBODY brings up how tough the world is on men.

Yes. The world is tough on men. Make a video about it. Educate your fellows so they can break the chains of societal expectations.

Why insist that women talk about your challenges when they are talking about their own challenges. I don't understand why that comes up very single time. It flummoxes me.

Although maybe you truly were joking? Maybe you don't think the world is tough on men? I sure do. Your shortened life span compared to women is proof of that, I should think. The pressures that you list, even jokingly.... dang. I can't imagine what it is like to face that on a daily basis. It seems horrendous to me.

eric3579says...

I couldn't agree with you more

bareboards2said:

I also don't understand why videos like this have to turn into a competition in the comment stream. Women have things they have to do to break free of their unconscious choices. That's just a human fact. Why bring up men's unconscious choices, @Trancecoach? I know you are joking (you checked the box!). However every time a vid like this shows up, SOMEBODY brings up how tough the world is on men.

Yes. The world is tough on men. Make a video about it. Educate your fellows so they can break the chains of societal expectations.

Why insist that women talk about your challenges when they are talking about their own challenges. I don't understand why that comes up very single time. It flummoxes me.

oritteroposays...

Men are equally capable of being vain idiots, and her advice would apply to them equally.

As a teenager I went on a trip for school, and the person who took the longest to get ready every morning? A boy.

As for the rest of your points, she actually addressed them... did you watch the whole video before downvoting?

Trancecoachsaid:

It's a good thing that there are no concomitant expectations placed on men whatsoever with regards to their net worth, their financial independence, their capacities to support a family on their own without actually spending any time with their children or their wives and other relatives, their general athleticism, their own type of attractiveness -- their height, their weight -- their general aggressiveness, their machismo, their sensitivity, their emotionality, their stoicism, their bravery, their intelligence, their capacities to fix or build everything and anything, their overall dominance over others and themselves...

Plus, as a woman, she absolutely has no choice whatsoever in whether or not she participates in any of the social standards that she references here (or reinforces by her very appearance regardless of what she wears or puts on!)..

It's all imposed on her, and she has no say in the matter at all.. Good thing she's a victim and we men are here to protect and take care of her.

chingalerasays...

First of all, I'd like to point-out that once the lovely Ms. Spicer here took of that hideously frumpy dress, got rid of her patina of shellac and wet her hair, she suddenly became much comelier and glamorous and down-to-earth sexy for me personally, as I have ALWAYS gravitated towards women who shun make-up who looked like they just threw-on their favorite comfortable clothes, and could give a fuck about what anyone thinks about how they should look or act.

Any man who thinks otherwise is most-likely, a superficial and abusive fucking douchebag who will invariably seek-out the female form of douchbag, and have lots of power, money, and influence in either politics, banking, sales/insurance, or some other form of criminal activity which does nothing for the planet except create more douchebag children who will turn into bigger douchebag adults than their sheit-scumbag parents ever dreamed. This is a huge phenom in the current planetary paradigm and has been going-on for centuries to create the dysfunctional western civilization we enjoy today, cascading into insanity and oblivion, a world controlled by completely evil pieces of shit.

Here's the real-deal Trancecoach and it's in-line with Bill Burr's idea of an 'epidemic of gold-digging whores' routine so popular here among sift-voters, because it's all true. Assholes and douchebags wield enormous power and control over the rest of us honest and capable peeps on the planet because people in-general, don't know who they are or why they think and act the way they do, because as victims of abuse both physical and psychological, they give their own energy and power over to these cunts who are ass-raping the planet with their lies and egos, their narcissism and toxic personalities.

These hopelessly evil humans have been very successful in programming the herd-mokeys as well to aspire to become cunts, douchbags, and assholes just like themselves, as evidenced in the inordinate amount of these gullible mini-versions running loose on the globe and breeding like fruit flies.

This phenomenon is endemic in the west, the Middle East, China and South America, and it will get way worse before it gets any better.

bareboards2says...

You know, all these men who object so much to women being the subject of a sentence or a video -- perhaps @Payback has a point.

Let's have all gender free videos and gender free comments. No more using the word "man" or "woman" or "he" or "she". We will need to make up some new words, but that is easy enough to do.

Which country is it that has made their entire language gender neutral? Sweden or some place like that?

That would be a perfectly humanist world. Which clearly these folks who are so offended when women are discussed would be happy to have, right?

I'm serious. Some radical feminists would absolutely agree with payback.

Gender neutral. AT ALL TIMES. Not just when the topic is actually women.

I'd go along with that. Not that I am a radical feminist. Just a normal one.

gorillamansays...

You can sign me up @bareboards2. If there were some broad agreement on terminology I would switch to gender neutral language instantly. Fucking sick of it.

Coincidentally I was thinking about this just this afternoon, because luckily I have nothing better to do at work than stand around contemplating gender politics; pleased and proud as I am of genderqueer crusaders trying to wrestle pronouns into shape, I've been generally unwilling to join them. For fuck's sake, I spend enough time every day arguing about the excess syllable in the number sev, I can't afford to multiply that by every sentence with a person in it.

Singularising plural pronouns is offensive to me on a practical and aesthetic level, Spivak's no damn good, you've got your zes and your hirs and your hens, it's a pain in the ass but as soon as we get some consensus and momentum it's going to be cool.

Can't see that feminism really has anything to do with all this, well, I have trouble seeing that feminism has anything to do with anything. Not to go all Trancecoach here with male world problems but they're similarly told that to be professional they have to knot a piece of cloth around their neck for no reason or slice the hair off their face every day for no fucking reason. The situation is that we have a bullshit tribal culture with endless absurd customs and arbitrary rituals which is perpetuated by morons.

So we should always be rationalising - language, culture, behaviour, expectations.

Gender neutrality is obviously the way to go. If you get shoved in a box you don't become the champion of the box and work to make your box the best box it can be; you break out and start beating your captors over the head with box fragments.

I don't give a fuck about women's problems; I don't give a fuck about women, but I'm glad to consider anyone who stops wearing makeup a part of my team because I don't wear makeup for the same reason I don't shave my stupid face.

Anyway that was my choggie impression for the day. Too much caffeine, not enough sleep, not enough time spent bathing in the blood of my enemies.

Trancecoachsays...

I don't have a lot of time at the moment to get into this in depth, but this article might help to clarify my thoughts on the issue.

This is not a "competition," by any means, but I am sensitized to the issue, having been indoctrinated throughout my schooling and my upbringing by what feels like a social inequity which purports that, implicitly, men are "bad" and need to be "checked" at every turn, while women are "good," and must be protected and acquiesced at all times. As I get older, however, this attitude turns sour as I continuously find myself faced with a stark dichotomy between either heeding the social, professional, and political needs, wants, and desires of "all women," and those of protecting my own social, professional, and political needs, wants, and desires "as a man." These shouldn't be dichotomous, but for some reason, it has become such.

I am willing to look at and manage my own triggers and/or issues around this, as a personal effort (and I do on almost a daily basis), but in the meantime (and in the hopes of supporting such an effort), I feel there needs to be a lot more recognition and dialogue around what constitutes "equality" (be it gender, or financial, or otherwise) within a society that is either politically regulated and thereby "rigged," by definition on behalf of some people, at the expense of others; or it is socially imposed, whereby (for example) a man is simply expected to be the breadwinner, by virtue of his gender, and reactively judged if he is or can not be that.

I have no interest in "making a video" about this, since my energies are better placed elsewhere, at present, but I can and do make comments on videos like this one, in an effort to meet and respond to the messages with which we're inculcated, with the personal albeit opposing view that things "are as they are" for a reason, and if we're to do anything about it, it requires a fuller examination of the entire picture, and not simply a one-sided, biased and therefore "unequal," perspective which posts blame (and/or guilt) upon one side of the equation without any (or with little) insight as to what role one plays in the issue, oneself.

I am not saying that the inequities aren't there. In fact, I'd go so far as to say
that people need to come to terms with the fact that some people will always "have more" than others and, in a leveled playing field, that is the only fair situation that can exist. In other words, any forced or imposed "equality" is implicitly incompatible with both liberty and freedom, and can not (and should not) be abided as a matter of course.

I encourage you to take a look at the article posted at the top of this comment for another perspective on the same (or "similar") issue.

bareboards2said:

I kept thinking that if women who spend so much time on their appearance had more time, they'd probably just watch TV or mess with Facebook.

As for the wage disparity -- I think that might be other reasons why women who spend so much time on their appearance make less money. I suspect that they are just not that smart, rely on their looks to get by, and/or probably have pretty low self esteem which interferes with their ability to work to their highest potential. I suspect that confident, busy women don't obsess on their bodies like that.

I also don't understand why videos like this have to turn into a competition in the comment stream. Women have things they have to do to break free of their unconscious choices. That's just a human fact. Why bring up men's unconscious choices, @Trancecoach? I know you are joking (you checked the box!). However every time a vid like this shows up, SOMEBODY brings up how tough the world is on men.

Yes. The world is tough on men. Make a video about it. Educate your fellows so they can break the chains of societal expectations.

Why insist that women talk about your challenges when they are talking about their own challenges. I don't understand why that comes up very single time. It flummoxes me.

Although maybe you truly were joking? Maybe you don't think the world is tough on men? I sure do. Your shortened life span compared to women is proof of that, I should think. The pressures that you list, even jokingly.... dang. I can't imagine what it is like to face that on a daily basis. It seems horrendous to me.

bareboards2says...

I tried to read the article -- I'll try again later.

Seems like same old, same old to me.

Look, I agree with you that it is pretty stupid that women are held up as being better than men. It is really stupid that men are insulted by being defined by their lowest common denominator or by some superficial stereotype.

When I was in my 20s, which was a long time ago, I would hear things like -- if women were in charge of the world, we wouldn't have wars. Bullshit. Women are just as capable of being territorial and selfish as any man. And men being stupid about their emotions, and walled off? It was clear to me that they were victims of emotional terrorism from men, boys, women and girls, who put enormous pressure on them to "be men." Whatever the fuck that means.

But to constantly throw everything into the pot and expect every single video about women to include the pressures on men is not helping. I'm glad to hear that you acknowledge being "triggered" -- which to me is an emotional response out of scale with the current situation. I'm glad you know that.

Maybe if you could channel that energy into specifics, instead of broadsides. Instead of challenging women's right to talk about themselves and their experiences, why not challenge the part of the videos that do the denigration towards men? I try very hard not to denigrate men, and I fall into it way way way too easy. (A source of shame for me.) A woman makes a crack about men being stupid? Jump on it! Say it is bullshit. Say you don't like it when we do it to you. OPEN OUR EYES TO OUR OWN BULLSHIT.

But that isn't going to happen when a woman is talking about her own experience and you jump in and muddle things by bringing up men and their challenges. That is where the "make your own video" comes from. Men aren't the topic right now. Women are the topic. And fuck yeah, we are victims. And we need to learn how not to be. Which is what this (flawed) video was trying to do.

The thing is, men are victims too. They just never talk about it. Why is that?

I absolutely agree with you that men have enormous pressures on them. I have two male friends who have talked at length about the experience of growing up male and not fitting the stereotype (and it is a stereotype), and what they suffered as they tried to make their own lives despite those pressures. Both of them were perceived as "weak". And now they are some of the best people on the planet because they had the courage to stay true to themselves.

I just beg of you to keep these topics separate.

Let women talk about their issues.

If you can find videos where men talk about their issues, post them.

If you find something in a video where men are denigrated, speak up about that specific piece of it.

It godawful tiring trying to change the world, isn't it?

(And maybe as you stick up for men in specific instances, you might grow some insight into the challenges faced by women. Maybe gain some sympathy as you attempt to help women have some sympathy towards men.)

Trancecoachsaid:

I don't have a lot of time at the moment to get into this in depth, but this article might help to clarify my thoughts on the issue.

This is not a "competition," by any means, but I am sensitized to the issue, having been indoctrinated throughout my schooling and my upbringing by what feels like a social inequity which purports that, implicitly, men are "bad" and need to be "checked" at every turn, while women are "good," and must be protected and acquiesced at all times. As I get older, however, this attitude turns sour as I continuously find myself faced with a stark dichotomy between either heeding the social, professional, and political needs, wants, and desires of "all women," and those of protecting my own social, professional, and political needs, wants, and desires "as a man." These shouldn't be dichotomous, but for some reason, it has become such.

I am willing to look at and manage my own triggers and/or issues around this, as a personal effort (and I do on almost a daily basis), but in the meantime (and in the hopes of supporting such an effort), I feel there needs to be a lot more recognition and dialogue around what constitutes "equality" (be it gender, or financial, or otherwise) within a society that is either politically regulated and thereby "rigged," by definition on behalf of some people, at the expense of others; or it is socially imposed, whereby (for example) a man is simply expected to be the breadwinner, by virtue of his gender, and reactively judged if he is or can not be that.

I have no interest in "making a video" about this, since my energies are better placed elsewhere, at present, but I can and do make comments on videos like this one, in an effort to meet and respond to the messages with which we're inculcated, with the personal albeit opposing view that things "are as they are" for a reason, and if we're to do anything about it, it requires a fuller examination of the entire picture, and not simply a one-sided, biased and therefore "unequal," perspective which posts blame (and/or guilt) upon one side of the equation without any (or with little) insight as to what role one plays in the issue, oneself.

I am not saying that the inequities aren't there. In fact, I'd go so far as to say
that people need to come to terms with the fact that some people will always "have more" than others and, in a leveled playing field, that is the only fair situation that can exist. In other words, any forced or imposed "equality" is implicitly incompatible with both liberty and freedom, and can not (and should not) be abided as a matter of course.

I encourage you to take a look at the article posted at the top of this comment for another perspective on the same (or "similar") issue.

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