In the grand scheme of life are men and women equal? Some say yes on the basis that women learnt how to vote, and men learnt that the washing machine door is not a portal to Narnia. Yet if that is equality then how come stereotypes still depict scenarios where one gender has advantage over the other? For instance:
In many family households the woman is entirely responsible for cooking meals because her culinary skills are superior to those of her husband. It has been that way since the dawn of time. Stone-age man returning to the cave after a hard day of hunting would present their wife with a dead fish, but then watch in bewildered amazement as she transforms it into a delicious caramelised wing of skate jus a la parisienne. However, this stereotype starts to fall apart in the modern world because these days almost all the best and most famous chefs are men.
For another example, observe a busy night club and it becomes obvious that the majority of women intuitively know how to dance. By contrast, many men struggle with even simple dance moves and often end up looking like prats. Anyone who saw me years ago at the Sindy Salsa classes can testify that my dance skills were so awful they were not just an embarresment but more a hazard to public health and safety. Thank God for the recent film "Hitch" with the dance lesson scene from Will Smith which has no doubt saved the dignity of many a man. The moves are so simple I can almost do them myself, but whilst men today are still stuck on the dance floor pretending not to count steps, women are up on the bar grinding away to their heart`s content making it all look so easy and natural. Hence my surprise to read that the majority of professional dance instructors are male and so the stereotype once again starts to disintegrate.
The world of work provides initial respite for stereotypes as here we find that the majority of senior staff in corporate or political office are men. Yet at the very top echelons of power and influence there are women. Feel free to quote names like Margaret Thatcher, but I was thinking higher up. It has been argued that the most powerful person in the world is a woman, namely HRH Queen Elisabeth. She is allegedly so busy that her diary is fully booked more than 2 years in advance, and of such importance that a man is employed to place a silver tray underneath any cars parked at Buckingham Palace so that no oil can drip onto her driveway.
If we bring cars into the equation lets test the stereotype about women being bad drivers. Descending mountain roads at 45km/h in 4th gear with a foot permanently on the brake whilst chatting on the phone and tail-gating the bus in front, but without even the intention to overtake. Clearly heal and toe down-shifting is a lost art. All drivers make mistakes, especially me, but the worry is that some never make the effort to get things right. Generalisations about men being better drivers might originate from the 1955 Mille Miglia, when Moss or Fangio drove basic Mercedes sportscars with such vast talent they completed 1597km over country roads in 10 hours. Some say modern day Formula 1 proves that men are still the better drivers, but F1 has been so computerised and commercialised that it has little relevance in the real world. When did you last see an F1 car outside Migros loaded with shopping? Fact is these days some of the best drivers are women. Any males who dispute that should visit the devilishly difficult 21km Nordschleife circuit in Germany where a woman called Sabine can easily humiliate chauvenistic men by smashing their lap times. To add insult to injury she is not only the fastest person to lap the track in just about anything from a van to a BMW M5, but she is also blonde and pretty.
At this point I would love to offer a profound conclusion, but I think the results speak for themselves. Battle of the sexes was not the best of titles, besides, so much more can be achieved when the genders work in harmony. I think many stereotypes still have a place in the modern world, but are perhaps not as relevant as they once were simply because these days it is so easy to find exceptions to conformity. This even applies to GoL where it is easy to look at the details on the profile page of a member and then pidgeonhole them into a certain societal group on the grounds of what can be baseless assumptions about their charachter. Therefore I support the view that there is little substitute for getting to know people in person and considering their individual merits before making stereotypical judgements.
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Battle of the Sexes
Apr 21, 2007 @ 18:33
The text you are quoting:
In the grand scheme of life are men and women equal? Some say yes on the basis that women learnt how to vote, and men learnt that the washing machine door is not a portal to Narnia. Yet if that is equality then how come stereotypes still depict scenarios where one gender has advantage over the other? For instance:
In many family households the woman is entirely responsible for cooking meals because her culinary skills are superior to those of her husband. It has been that way since the dawn of time. Stone-age man returning to the cave after a hard day of hunting would present their wife with a dead fish, but then watch in bewildered amazement as she transforms it into a delicious caramelised wing of skate jus a la parisienne. However, this stereotype starts to fall apart in the modern world because these days almost all the best and most famous chefs are men.
For another example, observe a busy night club and it becomes obvious that the majority of women intuitively know how to dance. By contrast, many men struggle with even simple dance moves and often end up looking like prats. Anyone who saw me years ago at the Sindy Salsa classes can testify that my dance skills were so awful they were not just an embarresment but more a hazard to public health and safety. Thank God for the recent film "Hitch" with the dance lesson scene from Will Smith which has no doubt saved the dignity of many a man. The moves are so simple I can almost do them myself, but whilst men today are still stuck on the dance floor pretending not to count steps, women are up on the bar grinding away to their heart`s content making it all look so easy and natural. Hence my surprise to read that the majority of professional dance instructors are male and so the stereotype once again starts to disintegrate.
The world of work provides initial respite for stereotypes as here we find that the majority of senior staff in corporate or political office are men. Yet at the very top echelons of power and influence there are women. Feel free to quote names like Margaret Thatcher, but I was thinking higher up. It has been argued that the most powerful person in the world is a woman, namely HRH Queen Elisabeth. She is allegedly so busy that her diary is fully booked more than 2 years in advance, and of such importance that a man is employed to place a silver tray underneath any cars parked at Buckingham Palace so that no oil can drip onto her driveway.
If we bring cars into the equation lets test the stereotype about women being bad drivers. Descending mountain roads at 45km/h in 4th gear with a foot permanently on the brake whilst chatting on the phone and tail-gating the bus in front, but without even the intention to overtake. Clearly heal and toe down-shifting is a lost art. All drivers make mistakes, especially me, but the worry is that some never make the effort to get things right. Generalisations about men being better drivers might originate from the 1955 Mille Miglia, when Moss or Fangio drove basic Mercedes sportscars with such vast talent they completed 1597km over country roads in 10 hours. Some say modern day Formula 1 proves that men are still the better drivers, but F1 has been so computerised and commercialised that it has little relevance in the real world. When did you last see an F1 car outside Migros loaded with shopping? Fact is these days some of the best drivers are women. Any males who dispute that should visit the devilishly difficult 21km Nordschleife circuit in Germany where a woman called Sabine can easily humiliate chauvenistic men by smashing their lap times. To add insult to injury she is not only the fastest person to lap the track in just about anything from a van to a BMW M5, but she is also blonde and pretty.
At this point I would love to offer a profound conclusion, but I think the results speak for themselves. Battle of the sexes was not the best of titles, besides, so much more can be achieved when the genders work in harmony. I think many stereotypes still have a place in the modern world, but are perhaps not as relevant as they once were simply because these days it is so easy to find exceptions to conformity. This even applies to GoL where it is easy to look at the details on the profile page of a member and then pidgeonhole them into a certain societal group on the grounds of what can be baseless assumptions about their charachter. Therefore I support the view that there is little substitute for getting to know people in person and considering their individual merits before making stereotypical judgements.
philApr 21, 2007 @ 18:33
In many family households the woman is entirely responsible for cooking meals because her culinary skills are superior to those of her husband. It has been that way since the dawn of time. Stone-age man returning to the cave after a hard day of hunting would present their wife with a dead fish, but then watch in bewildered amazement as she transforms it into a delicious caramelised wing of skate jus a la parisienne. However, this stereotype starts to fall apart in the modern world because these days almost all the best and most famous chefs are men.
For another example, observe a busy night club and it becomes obvious that the majority of women intuitively know how to dance. By contrast, many men struggle with even simple dance moves and often end up looking like prats. Anyone who saw me years ago at the Sindy Salsa classes can testify that my dance skills were so awful they were not just an embarresment but more a hazard to public health and safety. Thank God for the recent film "Hitch" with the dance lesson scene from Will Smith which has no doubt saved the dignity of many a man. The moves are so simple I can almost do them myself, but whilst men today are still stuck on the dance floor pretending not to count steps, women are up on the bar grinding away to their heart`s content making it all look so easy and natural. Hence my surprise to read that the majority of professional dance instructors are male and so the stereotype once again starts to disintegrate.
The world of work provides initial respite for stereotypes as here we find that the majority of senior staff in corporate or political office are men. Yet at the very top echelons of power and influence there are women. Feel free to quote names like Margaret Thatcher, but I was thinking higher up. It has been argued that the most powerful person in the world is a woman, namely HRH Queen Elisabeth. She is allegedly so busy that her diary is fully booked more than 2 years in advance, and of such importance that a man is employed to place a silver tray underneath any cars parked at Buckingham Palace so that no oil can drip onto her driveway.
If we bring cars into the equation lets test the stereotype about women being bad drivers. Descending mountain roads at 45km/h in 4th gear with a foot permanently on the brake whilst chatting on the phone and tail-gating the bus in front, but without even the intention to overtake. Clearly heal and toe down-shifting is a lost art. All drivers make mistakes, especially me, but the worry is that some never make the effort to get things right. Generalisations about men being better drivers might originate from the 1955 Mille Miglia, when Moss or Fangio drove basic Mercedes sportscars with such vast talent they completed 1597km over country roads in 10 hours. Some say modern day Formula 1 proves that men are still the better drivers, but F1 has been so computerised and commercialised that it has little relevance in the real world. When did you last see an F1 car outside Migros loaded with shopping? Fact is these days some of the best drivers are women. Any males who dispute that should visit the devilishly difficult 21km Nordschleife circuit in Germany where a woman called Sabine can easily humiliate chauvenistic men by smashing their lap times. To add insult to injury she is not only the fastest person to lap the track in just about anything from a van to a BMW M5, but she is also blonde and pretty.
At this point I would love to offer a profound conclusion, but I think the results speak for themselves. Battle of the sexes was not the best of titles, besides, so much more can be achieved when the genders work in harmony. I think many stereotypes still have a place in the modern world, but are perhaps not as relevant as they once were simply because these days it is so easy to find exceptions to conformity. This even applies to GoL where it is easy to look at the details on the profile page of a member and then pidgeonhole them into a certain societal group on the grounds of what can be baseless assumptions about their charachter. Therefore I support the view that there is little substitute for getting to know people in person and considering their individual merits before making stereotypical judgements.
philApr 21, 2007 @ 18:33
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