Today it’s all about girls and boys, university and ‘that’
Labour peer. Shami Kebabrabalti, who says "Gender injustice is so embedded in our society and
our world, that sometimes we stop seeing it.” She is so right, oh yes indeed...
but the gender that is being hard done by, as far as education is concerned, is
the male one. Some ardent feminists even go so far as to suggest restricting
the participation of males in society to being sperm donors only and even that
by strictly clinical means. Ugh, men!
We ought to give that a go, though. The men could all go
and live on an island – Australia ought to do it and it does have previous in
this regard – and see if they can get by on only such skills and ingenuity as
are within the purview of the newly irrelevant sex. It would be fascinating to
see how long the far superior womenfolk survive on gossip, feminine solidarity
and bitching about the dudes once their technology begins to falter and fail. Over
in Aus it is likely to get a bit unruly, untidy and obviously smelly but at
least they would have the option of bathing if they so wished; back in the civilisation
of the sisterhood I have an inkling they may soon stop drooling over the pretty
boys and begin to fantasise about plumbers...
Of course that is a ridiculously simplistic, generalised,
juvenile and frankly Neanderthal representation of the male-female dichotomy.
It’s also pretty much spot on. For all the decades of hammering square pegs
into round holes, the attempts to feminise men have largely failed... as have
the many, many projects to get women to be equally represented in the rough,
tough, dirty, hands-on trades of engineering and the more robust sciences. For
every fast-tracked female exec, leap-frogging over the male competition to boardroom
stardom; for every female apprentice whose image has been used on the front page
of every trade magazine; for every woman boxer, wrestler or racing driver,
there are hundreds of fellas equally able.
Why do we have to tell ourselves fairy tales about sameness
when the very essence of the binary genders that 99% of the human race identify
with is difference. Men, women; with the exception of the statistically
insignificant anomalies that’s what we’ve got. Our physiology is different, our
mental acuity different, our social preferences different and our attitudes to
much about life... different. It’s what we like about each other.
If you are a woman who has carved out a high-flying career
without the reverse prejudice of women-first or women-only policies you won’t
be offended by any of this. If you are offended, the chances are it’s because
you’re not so secure in your merit as you have tried to convince yourself. You
may need a female-only safe space. The uneasy partnership between men and women
and the perversity of nature forcing us together has existed unaltered for
millennia. Where did this desire to pretend that gender is a choice come from?
I blame education, education, education. If a little
knowledge can be a dangerous thing a lot of simply untrue knowledge may be the
death of us. We have progressed from a model of civilisation that worked to a
fluid social experiment that is unleashing continual unrest and dissatisfaction. Despite all the choices people are presented with today, I have a sneaking feeling that people were generally
happier back when they had far fewer options. If you wanted an indicator as to how pointless this debate is, even Lily Allen has waded in –
despite having the clear choice not to...
Anyway, I don't why am I bothered, I have plenty of stuff to be
getting on with. I’m enrolling on my cycling proficiency PhD next week over at
the Wallamaroo University of Manly Things. It should nicely complement my Masters
in 25m breast stroke. If anybody needs me I’ll be over there with the blokes...
and the last remaining cold beers on the planet.
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