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Thursday 9 April 2009

I gotta’ tell ya…


…I’ve been dealing with some very trying men of late. As much as men fascinate me with their egos, their charm and their intelligence, they can also be bloody stupid, arrogant and dumb.

Why do men think they know it all? Yeah, I know…it’s the riddle of the sands and the sands are always shifting so you have no bloody idea how to work out what’s going on at any given time so why bother? I don’t know -but every so often I do wonder and then I realize why I haven’t in so long. Men are strange.

I got a letter from ‘A’ in Nicaragua. She is 6. I sponsor her schooling. ‘A’ wants to be a Doctor. I hope to whichever cosmic deity is winning the pissing contest amongst the others that she will. I hope ‘M’ in Bangladesh will get to be the school teacher she dreams of being. These girls – like millions of others in 3rd world countries, have been born into a world where gender marks equality. If you saw Sunday’s blog I was wild at the Afghan President for turning the clock backwards on women’s rights. I still am. But ‘A’s’ letter and the week I have had brought home to me that while I am incredibly lucky to be born in Australia, with all the benefits that go with it, women are never going to be truly equal.

I live in a fantastic country. It’s the best one on Earth but men rule the world and always will and I don’t care what rad fems say. You go into any workplace in any free country and I guarantee you, I have worked in 27 jobs, that while there may be a female in charge somewhere in the organization, the power of the penis still rules. Five women at work have pointed this out to me this week. And I have seen it myself. Men talk without thinking. I don’t know whether men are aware of what they’re saying or whether it comes out of their mouths before they think but jeez Louise, I’ve had to fight a few battles this week because of men assuming they are the chosen ones due to the extra appendage. Well, they’re not and I have pointed that out and the fact that I’m just as good as them. But for every one woman who says something another stays quiet or complains to another woman.

So, my point is – and I do have one –as much as I would love to see a female Afghan President or the barriers to gender smashed down, I believe they will always be there regardless of what reforms are pushed through to make sure so many women hold a percentage of jobs or power or whatever feel good thing creates publicity. So if we cannot get it right in our ‘lucky’ worlds how the hell will we get it right in developing worlds?

No, I’ll never give up on equal rights but weeks like this make me wonder how a kid in Nicaragua with everything against her can rise if western women are still fighting inequality on a daily basis. I don’t hate men. I just wish they would think for five seconds before they speak.

www.amarindajones.com
www.amarindajones.blogspot.com
Go Ahead : Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?

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