*tsk* "Men."
As soon as I hear it, my hackles rise. She's used to saying it. They all are. That off-hand, exasperated little complaint of an explanation. Something's gone wrong. Gone missing. Gone awry. And that's not the way she would have done it. She would have injected a bit of common sense into the matter from the beginning and got it sorted without all this need for eye-rolling and the picking up of dirty socks.
"Men. I mean, honestly. Am I right, girls?"
Yeah, well I've had a gut-full. This goes beyond that utterly hurtful Mere Male page in the back of The Women's Weekly. I've grown up being bombarded by images of dick-head dudes and dopey dads and I can differentiate myself from what I see in the media (offensive and pervasive as it is), but as I work in a female-dominated environment, more and more I get subjected to these blasé little quips with the punchlines revolving around men and their predictable meeting of low expectations.
"Were you having a man-look for it?"
My honest reply to this one is now "Well, I didn't have a woman-look - you know, standing around squawking about it until someone else finds it in plain sight."
Think I'm kidding? No one makes the "man-look" joke around me any more.
I hereby put my foot down. No more making snide little gags about men. Not around me. Not around the men in my life. All the men I know are, every one, excellent human beings. I'm proud of all them. So don't shuffle around here with your smirky little bon mots about listening and understanding and housework. I won't have it.
I'm perfectly well aware that there are too many tedious blokes out there. That's fine. Go and tell your could-burn-water cooking gags around them.
But keep that tiresome dreck away from me.
*tsk* "Oh! Men! I don't know!"
"I do! We're like women, but less whingey."
Join me, my brothers. Put this tediousness in its place and you, like me, will have to put up with it substantially less often.
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An explanation of The Joy Division Litmus Test
Although it may now be lost in the mysts of thyme, the poll below is still relevant to this blog. In the winter of 2008, Mele and I went to live in Queensland. In order to survive, I bluffed my way into a job at a Coffee Club.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.
I'll forward this to Love Chunks because he'll read it, raise his fist in the air and yell, "YEAH! I'm with you Franzy!"
ReplyDeleteThe advertisements on telly invariably portray men as idiots which is unfair. "Silly Daddy" is one such line I remember from a Huggies nappies ad from a year or two ago, and KFC have used the Dumb Dad many times to 'Make Mother's Day Special' by visiting a drive-thru and bringing back a heart attack in a bucket.
I have never, ever said "Men". Mainly because there is so much that could be said right back to me...
You'n'me, LC.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to his blog, by the way?
At the risk of having all women "out there" hate me, I have to say I agree with you. True, there are some dumbo type men out there, but it's also true that some women are just as dumb. All that "standing around waiting for a big strong man to help..." business just crumbles my cookies. Forget the man and find some way to deal on your own. Shift your own spiders, change your own tyres, and so on.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Are those mini cabbages growing in your very own backyard? Yay you! Thay look wonderful.
ReplyDeleteRiver - I spend quite a bit of effort trying to make sure that this post stayed on one issue and making sure that it didn't turn into man or woman-bashing post. It's that sort of lazy, defeatist, generalised thinking that I want to rail against.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with railing against man-bashing humour in general is that often it's actually the only way for lots of women to get back a bit of their own from the, no doubt, tedious stream of men who've travelled through their lives. I really wanted to add something like "if you don't like the way the men in your life behave, get rid of them". But that sort of 'shit or get off the pot' talk doesn't really solve anything.
Are they the victims here?
Am I?
I just figure that if enough decent blokes out there just say 'Get stuffed' to that kind of 'All men are dumb' type humour, then hopefully it will encourage some kind of examination about exactly why it occurs. In my rosy little dreams.
gth - things look like they have come to a head so to speak...
ReplyDelete...or have you turned over a new leaf...?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah - Cabbages.
ReplyDeleteGrown by ... me!
Infested by ... earwigs!
haha, I get all the "the big boys club" when I do things with work i.e. dinner with clients, mobile phones, lap tops, fuel cards, work vehicles, travel, training, etc.
ReplyDeleteThe only trouble it comes from someone that has been working in the company for 20 years in a finance/admin role and has never once tried to remember anything operational or technical like what family of product that comes from - no interest shown in it what-so-ever.
I'd tell you more, but it's a long story.
GTH: someone said Man couldn't grow vegetables.
ReplyDeleteLC got all shy about his blog and immediately whipped it off. I don't know why because it was brilliant. Insightful views on politics, the environment, wine and his family...
ReplyDeleteI totally and completely agree. I'm really tired of that mere male CRAP. And the bullshit thats put out constantly about how men make womens lives a drudgery.
ReplyDeleteI do actually work in a mostly male environment, and this sort of crap never comes up - its only on the periphery. But I still get fed up with it.
You want to get Kath (and my wife) going on the subject of a mostly female work environment some time. It would make you shudder... so much for "caring sharing communicating" female managers.... ha ha ha ha ha!!!