Show me men in g-strings cooking and serving up chocolate-covered delicacies.

Men got the Lingerie Bowl. And all the exploitative Superbowl commercials I had to grin and bear on Sunday.

The world that is the United States of America seems to me to be taking brisk steps backwards in terms of attitudes toward women and the portrayal of women. Sexism, misogynism, women-as-sex-object-ism are on the rise. The reputation of women is being brought down more than ever. Please tell me it's just my imagination.

How quickly can the average man, woman, and child find an image of a nearly naked woman these days? Mere seconds. Billboards, magazines, TV shows, internet sites, you name it. Physically and emotionally exposed women are touted everywhere. Men are getting more of what they want out of women (and the reverse is not happening at all). Women are getting shafted with an increasingly bigger shaft, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.

You've noticed that the corporate media is becoming more and more unbashedly indecent. But who would try to stop it? Men are having the time of their lives; it's never been better to be a man. They're not going to do anything about it. Women just CAN'T do anything about it. They're weak, voiceless, powerless, and physically attractive in the buff (we can't help noticing).

It all sells. There are bucks to be made. And at the end of the day, the men have all the money. They have it all. Money. Power. Penises. How hard would it be to topple the man-power that currently exists and is growing? I think very. Seems like, with increasing technological and scientific advancements, men just gain even more power and money.

Who is going to fight for the women?

Well, don't expect the women to save the women. A lot of us, some of us, opt to just take it like a man. Let the men be men. Go for trophy status instead. Be the cool, chummy, tolerant girlfriend/wife that your man's guy friends lust after and wish they had. Why become a feminist spokesperson slash pontificating martyr slash scornful brunt-of-jokes? It'll get you no love, no sex, no catcalls, no free drinks...

Isn't it easier to just be anorexic, get plastic surgery, spend all your time, money, and energy on becoming a man's ideal to be able to have a little bit of that power? What other power is there for women? There are the few "empowered" women, women who've got the goods to sell to horny market, who are actually just exploiting themselves... and goddamnit, they're crippling the rest of us.

I'm torn. Exploit myself for a fleeting bit of power and a lot of attention (become a stripper?)... or suck it up, accept the shaft, respect the shaft, and learn to fucking love it? Or would I be better off starting a movement, jumping off a cliff, becoming a lesbian?

I guess the most I could ever hope to do is raise my sons well so they don't become lewd misogynists, sexists, etc. And yet, odds still have them succumbing to the wiles of the media. They will read seemingly harmless magazines, like Maxim, and watch seemingly harmless TV shows, like Wild On, until they're numb in nuts and brain. They will continue to boner-up on blonde teenage girls dancing dirty in music videos when they've become old men ODing on Cialis. They can't help it. They've got money, power, and penises. And all I've got is this stupid blog.

I don't think we've even seen the worst of it yet. With not much in the way to stop it, I predict it get worse into the century. It will take a grand and marvelous revolution of some kind to crush it. Something like a spiritual revolution... which is not something I'm particularly hoping for. America and the world just seem to be heading in that direction too. A huge revolution, or something like the Rennaissance, will be due by the end of the century. And then, maybe after that, we could finally have our Star Trek world.

But I'll be long since dead by then, and I won't be around to say I told you so.