Holden Caulfield doesn't seem as much of a sexist as he could be. He seems to respect Jane, Sally, and Phoebe--girls he already knows and likes. However, he does seem to say some things about women that are insensitive at best and sexist at worst. For example, when he meets Mrs. Morrow on the train, he notices that her voice is really nice to listen to. He thinks the following about her as they first start talking on the train:
"She had a nice voice. A nice telephone voice, mostly. She should've carried a goddam telephone around with her" (54).
This telephone reference alludes to the fact that telephone operators in the 1940s and 1950s were mostly women. It's as if he's connecting her to a stereotypically female career that doesn't require anything other than a nice-sounding voice. It's good for her, though, that he didn't say that she only has a face for radio because "ugly girls" are the next on Holden's list who receive the sexist attitude.
Later at Ernie's, Holden is scoping out the place, and judging people like he does best, when he notices an interesting couple. He listens in to their conversation and the man is telling his date about a football game and all of its plays. Holden continues by saying the following:
"He was the most boring guy I ever listened to. And you could tell his date wasn't even interested in the goddam game, but she was even funnier-looking than he was, so I guess she had to listen. Real ugly girls have it tough. I feel so sorry for them sometimes" (85).
In this passage, Holden is sexist because he is basically saying that if an ugly girl wants to be taken care of, get married, or have a good life, then she will have to put up with any boring guy who will have her. He seems sensitive to her plight, but it's as if he only sees her future with a boring man rather than successfully accomplishing her own goals in life. Maybe she's giving the boring guy a pity date and not the other way around; but, being sexist, that's not how Holden would see it. All he can see is how pitiful her plight is and how she needs someone to take care of her because she's ugly.
Finally, Holden looks at women as if they were hunks of meat to buy. As he's waiting for Sally to show up for their date, Holden watches all of the other girls there in the lobby with him.
"A lot of schools were home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls sitting and standing around waiting for their dates to show up. Girls with their legs crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls. . . It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. . . You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. . . Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring--" (123).
The above passage shows Holden checking out girls like a normal teenager would; but then again, he figures that most of them will just end up marrying "dopey" guys. He doesn't look at a woman and say, "Gee, she would make a great businesswoman," only that she'll marry some phony. On the other hand, life was like that back in the 1940s and 1950s. Women were expected to get married and have children, not seek out careers or anything more for themselves. And yet, therein lies the irony, too. Holden might just be a product of the sexist society that he lives in. Either way, betting on a woman getting married, or being saved by getting married, without considering her potential for other possible choices in her life portrays a sexist attitude.
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