Bow down to Frosty! Frosty commands you!

December 29, 2000 10:30 AM

Bow down to Frosty! Frosty commands you! Snowmen as symbols of patriarchic oppression. Some people really just look for things to get snitty about.
posted by Skot (12 comments total)

Now, see, this is just what Camille Paglia is talking about when she harps on how academe is getting too specialized and full of postmodernist crap.

Snowmen reinforce stereotypes that "a man's place is outside the home"??? It's snow for god's sake. I suppose, in the spirit of political correctness we should now build snowmen inside?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And a snowman is just kids having fun in the snow.
posted by dnash at 10:49 AM on December 29, 2000

The Radio 4 programme about snowmen is being repeated on New Year's Day, at 6.15pm (GMT). I'll be listening, if only to hear how many times Tricia Cusack, the conspiracy theorist, slips up and says "female snowman, uh, snow-woman".


posted by ceiriog at 10:58 AM on December 29, 2000

And to be fair to Cusack, she's been studying representations of snowfolk on Christmas cards, not what actually gets built by kids having fun in the snow.
posted by ceiriog at 11:02 AM on December 29, 2000

Looks like another one for the Flummery Digest...
posted by waxpancake at 11:05 AM on December 29, 2000

It looked pretty tongue-in-cheek to me.
posted by frykitty at 12:04 PM on December 29, 2000

I like:

"She's reaching," says Terry Geib, spokeswoman for Calgary's parks and recreation department.

Well! That settles that!
posted by rodii at 1:03 PM on December 29, 2000

Wait a minute, we're missing a serious issue here. Why are all snowmen white?!
posted by dhartung at 4:50 PM on December 29, 2000

[insert gratuitous "yellow snow" reference here]
posted by youhas at 5:37 PM on December 29, 2000

I dont know about the rest of you, but i dont believe the mans place is outside and the women's is inside, and just to be dickheads... everyone build a snowwomen inside their house and send a picture of it to Ms Tricia Cusack ;)
posted by pehtes at 6:19 PM on December 29, 2000

I think that it's gender-biased of Ms. Cusack to assume that because snowcreatures are often depicted wearing top hats (ala Frosty) that they must be male.
posted by Dreama at 10:29 AM on December 30, 2000

Well, when you run outside telling your parents you're going to build a snowman, the name kind of lends itself to a gender bias. :-)
posted by cCranium at 9:11 AM on December 31, 2000

I'm going to build a male snowperson and keep it inside my house so I'm not objectifying... oh wait... it's snow... it'll melt... damn you physics!!!
posted by tj at 9:05 AM on January 2, 2001