What??? You can’t be serious.
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I am. I have never been held back by being female.
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I think responding to that email was a mistake. This is not the forum for this discussion. It’s going to go nowhere fast. I apologize to everyone else who has read these. I am now withdrawing from the discussion.
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Have been in our Victorian house for 35 years. It had been appallingly treated and split into 3 flats, the original staircase removed, the iron lace sold off, the original front door removed and replaced with glass shop doors, windows removed and the spaces roughly bricked up…I could go on and on.
This was our first house, I had money, my husband was just out of university and in debt for the business.
The number of trades people that would want to talk to him was amazing. My husband would say - she has the money, she is paying the bills, she makes the decisions - talk to her!
You said that people are only oppressed if they allow themselves to be. You may not feel you have been held back from anything by virtue of being female because you come from a privileged class of people- white in a first world country.
Try telling blacks whose ancestors were rounded up and herded onto slave ships in chains, and bought and sold like cattle, or women in countries where fundamentalist Muslims are in charge that they are only oppressed because they allow themselves to be.
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True.
I am speaking about my experience only. I thought I’d made that clear but I apologise if I didn’t.
I disagree. This forum is open to discussion about many things and always has been, as far as I’m aware. We’re all adults here. And I’m not about to let a statement like that go unchallenged. I’m actually surprised that jaquo would put forth such an offensive and ignorant notion.
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As I said above, I am speaking about my own experience and I apologize if it offends you.
It was offensive as a generalization about oppression.
You didn’t make it clear when you posted it that you were talking about your own personal experience in not feeling like being female has held you back from doing whatever you chose to.
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As I said, I apologise.
Oops, your privilege is showing. You might want to cover that up, no one wants to see more of it than they already have.
If your own experience is one of privilege, it helps the world for you to recognize it. It helps you too.
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Muddy, I’m very new to the forum and I didn’t know that a wide range of topics are discussed. I simply felt that I missed a couple of red flags that should have alerted me that this was a discussion that could never go anywhere useful. And could only devolve into nastiness . Believe me, I am not afraid of the debate. But I am weary of having it with people who have chosen to take an anti-woman, ant-justice, anti-logical position. I expect that of the men and women legislating against women, children, science, equality, minorities, etc. I just wasn’t prepared to debate these issues on this forum. I appreciate your willingness to be heard.
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Singing?? We could do with that on Australian building sites.
Ouch. I think I get what you’re trying to say but in reality it’s not that cut and dry, especially when you deal with oppression that has its roots deeply embedded in the systems that govern, legal or otherwise; much less tradition itself. I’ll leave it there.
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Yes, it’s one of the things I like about Mexican construction crews. They’ll just burst into song while laying block, or whatever, belting it out even if they don’t have a good singing voice, they don’t care. It’s quite charming.
My wasband (ex husband) was trying to buy camera lenses from a Brooklyn, NY-based company and was getting a 45 minute runaround (pre them having a decent online checkout). He was on speaker, I’m listening from the other room as he’s becoming more and more frustrated. Finally, he shouts “Listen, my wife is from Brooklyn. Do I have to put her on the phone???” Pause “How would you like to pay and we’re offering free overnight shipping and we’ll throw in …”
I do all the negotiations, contracts, project management, and money for my web company. My business partner (male) handles the functional specs, tech specs, programming, and programmers. So often when we’re in a boardroom (and I’m usually the only woman), they’ll keep looking at him and he just shrugs and points to me.
Maybe that’s why I get cranky…
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1977-78 I was an assistant manager at an auto parts store. At the time we didn’t sell any internal engine parts. It was where the weekend hobbyist got brake pads, water pumps, starters. No real knowledge of cars was needed, just the ability to read a parts catalog and get the correct part off the shelf.
Guys would come in and when I’d ask if I could help them they routinely said “I’ll wait for him” and point to the male working with me. Okay, no problem, you want to spend extra time for no reason, fine.
My experience was like jaquo’s in that I don’t feel I was personally held back in my life due to being female, or being gay for that matter. That has to do with my personality and life choices. I did not go into the field I studied (B.S. Criminal Justice) because of the clear and rampant corruption, sexism and racism I learned about and saw first hand in the system. Had I taken that job in the sheriff’s dept that I was offered instead of waiting to get a teaching job I have no doubt that my life would have been very different.
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Yeah, those shitty neighbours you’ve mentioned would be bringing you treats every other day instead of being arseholes.
JF
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Also a good chance I wouldn’t live in this house. I’d probably be the County Sheriff by now. LOL.
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Fuck me, that’s scary, ish.
JF
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