a new world

  I was scrolling on my Facebook page when a picture of a clock appeared. This clock was an advertising piece issued by Snap-On tools. The main feature of the clock was the image of the woman on it. She was scantily clad and in a suggestive pose. Now I've never seen that particular piece before, but it brought back memories of when that sort of thing was commonplace in the workplace. Generally, it was calendars. I was working as a maintenance technician, well a maintenance man back then not having become a technician yet, and it seemed every salesman had one. Passed out around Christmas it served as a gift of sorts as well as advertising their product. The state of dress or undress varied from company to company. I recall one year when the salesman gave us a new calendar and it did not have any such picture on it. The salesman said, almost as an apology, that human resources determined those calendars were inappropriate and possibly offensive. It was a shock and puzzling; inappropriate, offensive, to whom? 

 Thinking back, I have to smile about all of that. I remember as a young guy Playboy magazine was like hard core stuff! I worked at a garage while in high school and one of the mechanics there had a magazine that was called nudist life. The pictures in there were all taken at a nudist colony and showed naked people doing things like playing tennis or volleyball. He kept those magazines in the bottom drawer of his tool chest. I knew of another garage where the men's room wall was covered with the centerfolds from Playboy. All of that was common enough in the world of men or where men were expected to be. And the reason for that was easy to understand, it is what is normal and expected of the male species. Nothing offensive about any of that. 

 Ah, the days of the pin up girls. There wasn't any confusion about any of that. Everyone knew that is what guys wanted to see and what guys wanted to brag about. You were judged upon the remarks you would make regarding all of that. Discerning the popular female form was an important skill. It was the art of stating the obvious. Now none of that was supposed to be where the ladies could see it, that wasn't cool, but in the domain of men. Most men would even deny any such stuff existed in their workplace or insist it wasn't theirs. All of that was done tongue in cheek. It was really no secret at all. 

  You could say we have come a long way since those dark ages of sexism and exploitation of the female form. The pin up girls are all hidden from sight. No longer is that sort of thing tolerated. No sir, today there are literally millions of websites that depict every single aspect of human sexuality imaginable. You don't need to use your imagination, no fantasy required, it is all there, readily available to everyone and anyone! A great deal of that can be seen in movies and on television with unlimited access. Many of the female singers of today wear the same outfits I saw on those calendars years ago on stage today. It's wrong to have them on a calendar but not in front of 100,00 fans. Now that's progress. 

  Yes, I have reached that age where I can look back and see the changes in society. No longer having any desire to change myself, to adapt to whatever the latest fad or fashion happens to be, and free from societal pressure. I don't really care what others think. I've been around long enough to see, firsthand, what has been good and bad, what has worked and what hasn't. I understand that each generation has to discover all of that for themselves. That doesn't prevent me from making sarcastic remarks or scoffing at some of the ideas these younger folks have. And by younger folks I mean those 35 or forty years old, they have a lot to learn. I smile knowing that life will teach them sooner or later. One day they will sound just like me. Good thing we got rid of those pin-ups and stopped exploiting women like that! We've made progress. Now instead of oogling the girls on the posters we have guys turning themselves into those girls! Hey Bruce even posed topless! I read that somewhere, but I'm hoping it is fake news. It's a new world.