Friday, February 20, 2009

Normal business travelers

There's a commercial I've been hearing on the radio for some kind of premium for business travelers. I am not the best advertising audience in my pre-caffeinated state; I don't know which hotel chain is being advertised, but it's something about a free stay after ten stays.

And the spin is, hey, you're being rewarded for things business travelers already do. So "it's like being rewarded for wearing a tie. Or like being rewarded for shaving. Or like being rewarded for putting on pants."

What do these things have in common. Umm....I know!

They're things male business travelers do.

Now I grant you, female business travelers often put on pants. But they also often put on pantyhose. And makeup. And that wasn't in the commercial.

Once again, the default person is male. And you know what? I must have heard that commercial ten times before I realized the problem. Because "the patriarchy, you're soaking in it." Because I, too, think of the default person as male, despite a lifetime of feminism. Sigh.