I had a really interesting, yet misogynistic conversation with someone just the other night, about how hard we each work at our jobs. He, an employee at a landscaping company, and my self-working at a top electrical company in my tri state area. I would like to say polar opposites of the working world, but each of us working hard in our own way. Long days, with long hours, but different conditions, and then the most absurd comment came out of his mouth, “Yeah, it must be so hard sitting in a rolling chair all day.” At that point I had enough, and stepped out of the conversation, because no matter how much I explained it never would equal up to his caliber of work, and he would never really know what my work day was like, except for those I work with. Its those hard headed, ignorant comments, and people who create that great divide, the gender divide that is. The “home is a woman’s domain,” people, and those who are against women progressing in the work force, and even just now women gaining the rights to fight the front lines in combat , and yet no one still has been able to figure out why we receive a significant difference in pay, when our counter part could be just as educated, or trained as his female counterpart. Granted, its come a very far way for us ladies, but when on earth is this going to change? Why just now in 2016 its historical for women to fight on the front lines, why is it now women still cant be able to lift heavy things, or do anything manual labor related? We aren’t made of flower petals and sugar.
Case and point, I have always grown up somewhat of a tomboy. I played sports, I liked the dirt, and getting hurt really never bothered me. About three weeks ago, I had taken a trip on my long board down a new hill by my new house. I have to guess I was going about 20 some odd miles per hour, I had wiped out big time on the concrete and gravel combination at the bottom. I busted open both my palms, I have a scape and road rash scar the size of a large cucumber, and scrapes up my elbows and a few cuts here and there on my feet. It was the worst fall of my life. It literally looked like I had gotten hit by a car. The next day at work, the comments came flooding in, as I tried to not draw any attention to my self. I got the usual sympathetic comments, and then as the day went along, older males at my office started making some different comments. “Shouldn’t you not be skateboarding, aren’t you a mom?” “You’re a 25-year-old girl, shouldn’t you be doing something else.” I bit my tongue and moved on with my day, but every now and then, the comments would come back, and all I could think was, so Moms cant skateboard? Girls cant skateboard? Since when has it been a boy’s sport? Someone better tell Ellen O’Neal, a pro skateboarder in the 60’s sponsored by the notorious G& S Skateboarding that her prioneerism in skateboarding for women was for nothing! Speaking to a family friend about my scars, saying he would rather see my scars on a man than a woman. All I wanted to say to that was, “You think that was bad, you should see my c-section scar!” and you know its rough when you’d rather have a c-section again than fall of a long board down a hill!
What do we need to do to build a bridge over this gap over ? I personally am not one for politics, or discussing my views, but I sure as hell don’t need some man telling me how I should be living, or what I should be doing with my body, if you have no idea what it is like. As well as letting someone dictate my pay, when I already have to bust my ass for overtime to get myself really anywhere in life, which brings up a totally different concern, and topic when it comes to the money-fest political race we are all witnessing.
Why can’t women be seen in the same light as a man? At the end of the day, after the long workday, we can’t make as much money, men have to make the big decisions and they have to do all the hard work. Why are we the delicate flowers on the pedestal? I can tell you one of the reasons why we still are looked at this way, what is part of the problem at times is women themselves. Women who are okay with letting the man do the work, let them take control of their lives, and as long as that’s around, women are always going to be looked down on. Women who don’t take value to their decisions, or their lives, when they are worth so much more.
I want to empower women to want to be just as good as a men, to not be okay with wanting someone else to control their lives. To change the way are seen, to change the standards. Bringing up this problem isn’t about being a feminatzi, it’s not about being better about one than the other. It’s not about getting more than anyone; it’s about being the same. This problem is a new school problem with an old school attitude. At the end of the day, we all hate working, we all need a beer and just want to get a good nap in.
