joreth | Ya'll are gonna love this one!

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There's a debate in the OKCupid forums about gender roles.

And this one idiot had the temerity to say that there are some gender roles that will be around forever. So I challenged him to tell me what I am not suited for, having never met me, based simply on my genitals.

He cited Nascar.

I had to rip him a new one, particularly since I am actually quite a good race car driver.

But he keeps going:

http://www.okcupid.com/forum?low=21&tid=7580830466528908645

Anyone else want to do some schoolin'?

Current Mood: annoyed

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Its funny I actually had the experience of being at my local coffee shop and was asked by one of the regulars to quote come over and law some thermodynamics down on some fools. It was really amusing.

Outside of my personal community, I've essentially given up on the "gender wars". Strange but true, and anyone who knew me in my earlier life would be shocked and amazed.

Instead, when I hear some asshat of either gender make blanket statements about gender, I write them off entirely, and move on. (Sometimes with an aside to whomever I'm with about the absurdity of the attitude.) This often means I "miss out" on meeting/friending new people who might otherwise be quite fine companions, but I just don't care.

I wish I could just write them off and move on, but I come in contact with this kind of attitude at work in an environment when it impacts me directly, so I have my "lecture hat" on pretty much all the time. If it were just a few isolated incidents from a few jackasses that have nothing to do with me, I'd ignore it (which is what I did with religious people before they started really playing in the politics pool these last few years). But when I get passed up for promotions or lead positions or get stuck on "wardrobe" instead of electrics or video tech because I'm a "girl" and naturally am better at fluffing the ferns (yes, I was really given this assignment) than handling feeder cable or a camera, I have to step up and say something.

And I've learned that the more subtle "jokes" and "we're mostly equal, but with a few concessions" are the more dangerous, because the blatant sexism I can clearly combat just by being me and everyone around can tell he's a fucktard. But the jokes and the mostly-equal comments are much more insidious for their subtlety, the way they worm their way into our society without us even knowing it, and they take root, deeply, continuing to prevent true equal opportunity for either gender.