Why is it men are permitted to be obsessed about their work, but women are only permitted to be obsessed about men?

Streisand’s line critiques a gendered double standard in how ambition is perceived. It contrasts the cultural permission granted to men to be single-minded—“obsessed”—about professional achievement with the narrower script often imposed on women, whose intensity is expected to be directed toward romance and caretaking. The rhetorical question exposes how women’s drive can be trivialized or redirected into interpersonal terms, while men’s comparable fixation is framed as dedication. In doing so, the quote aligns with feminist critiques of workplace norms and media narratives that treat women’s careers as secondary to their relationships, challenging audiences to reconsider what kinds of desire and focus society legitimizes for each gender.