Pens for Her

The novel Song of Solomon makes many jabs at the concept of masculinity. The novel suggests that men see themselves as way superior to women which is why they constantly have to prove their masculinity by beating or degrading women.Women in the novel are portrayed as weak; the only thing they're destined to do is clean, cook, and find a husband. In chapter nine of the novel, Lena goes off on Milkman because he is "peeing" on all the women in his life. She says, "...to this day, you have never asked one of us if we were tired, or sad, or wanted a cup of coffee. Where do you get the right to decide our lives?" Her speech shows the fact that Milkman could care less about the other sex. Although the idea that females are the inferior sex is mostly a thing of the past, it's still seen today in society. A few years ago, Ellen Degeneres did a segment on her show about Bic Pens "For Her." She pokes fun at the pens by saying that women's hands are daintier and weaker and that normal pens are just too tough for us fragile women. Thank goodness we now have pens that do the same exact thing, but are twice as expensive and are pink, the only color for girls. I mean, come on, I thought we were past this! Although I'm not naive enough to believe that all sexism has disappeared, I like to think that, overall, we've moved past the mentality that women are the weaker sex. I guess I thought wrong. 

(Link to Ellen's segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCyw3prIWhc)