"Make me a sandwich!"

Between yesterday and today I was confronted with a "joke"  by two separate males  on two separate occasions. With a smirk on their face, out of nowhere they looked at me and smugly exclaimed " make me a sandwich!". I knew it was a joke and they both meant it in jest and yes I do have a sense of humor. But jokes aside I was upset. When I reacted less than amused they appeared shocked at my annoyance. "It was just a joke! Why do you get so angry about that!?", was more or less the response of both in each occurance.

Men please be aware that whilst that joke is meant in jest it does show underlying sexist sentiments not only in yourself but also in our society. Would a woman look to a man and make such an exclaimation or something similar ? If we said in jest "go fix a car! " "Go watch sports!" would you like it? Well yes , I'm certain men would have no problem with it. Why is that? Well perhaps the stigma of the phrase "get me a sandwich" comes from years of associating women with cooking and subservience to men. "Make me a sandwich", a simple silly exclamation, expresses the dominance of men in a joking way, suggesting that the place of a woman is in the kitchen. 

Is this uptight of me to analyze a joke made in good humor? I beg to differ. I rather suggest that even these small , fleeting comments made without regard are in fact the clear symbol of deep rooted sexism especially when the male in question is unable to see the atttached sexism of the statement.


What do you think?