Sinister: Step Into My Office, Baby

[Heather Swinsco]

Hello Sinister,

Johan wrote:

“…some reviewers on the net complained about the sexism of SIMO,B - but they 
rather miss the point don't they? the fact that here it's the woman whose 
the boss and exploiting the lowly mail menial (in fact, exactly the reverse 
of the usual stereotyped scenario).”


I agree as far as the song alone is concerned, but I’m not so sure about the 
video of  SIMO,B. In case you haven’t seen it, the male window cleaner is 
taken advantage of by a lot feisty female office staff, but in the end he 
falls in love with a less dominant woman (also a window cleaner), gets 
married to her and lives happily ever after. Right at the end the other 
women end up in a chaotic fight over the wedding bouquet and are laughed at 
by their male co-workers. Isn’t that just a bit anti-feminist? The more 
traditional relationship is portrayed in a positive light, while the women 
who had taken on the stereotypical male role are portrayed negatively, and 
are indeed ridiculed by their male colleagues. Moreover, the fact that they 
fight over the bouquet suggests that they yearn for the traditional 
relationship that the female window cleaner finds herself in by the end and 
are therefore dissatisfied with their ‘masculine’ roles. Of course, as my 
email address suggests, I may be a little biased here and if anyone else has 
a different perspective, do let me know…

Heather

PS I do actually like this song and this isn’t an attack on B&S in general, 
who, of course, I adore.

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