Bachelorette vs. Bachelor

July 13, 2006

So a coworker of mine brought up an interesting topic during work yesterday. While visiting the "PM" side of the office, you might find some interesting conversation pieces among our desks. For example, Mr. Blue Shoes.

Anyway, Mr. Blue Shoes is our office mascot. He was given to me at a "slumber party" (www.slumberparties.com) and in a previous life, was a phallic pencil topper. I adopted him, and as a prank, started planting him around the office. For example, he's been taped to the telephone mouthpiece, strategically placed on peoples chairs...so you can imagine that it didn't take long for this to become a fun game for us.

Anyway, back to my coworkers comment...he asked what the fascination about penises was for us women. He questioned why, for bachelorette parties, we have phallic cakes, pasta, keychains, hats, pins, cups, etc. and why men don't find it necessary to make "boob" cakes, or eat out of vagina bowls (i actually thought that was a pretty good idea!)

He also made the point that we women can openly place Mr. Blue Shoes in non-conspicuous places without a question, but if he were to bring his soon-to-be invented vagina bowl in to eat his lunchtime soup out of, there is no question that some female coworker would ultimately be offended.

So, I'm interested. I thought I'd compile a list of your comments and responses and put together a nice answer to his question...so again...

Why is it that women acceptedly throw parties and gallivant around town with penis decorations and phallic foods, and men don't find it necessary to decorate with their favorite parts of the female anatomy?