Being female

[celandineb]

I normally walk to and from work (it's just under a mile from my house) and on the way I pass a national pizza chain's shop, which delivers. Yesterday while going home at about 6:25 one of their delivery cars was pulling out, and I saw that it was a young woman driving.

Comments

[rhiannonredwulf]

I have to admit, I'm tall and was kind of raised to be a "guy" in a lot of ways. I don't get picked on by men in most circumstances the way my smaller female friends sometimes do. Actually, until I started traveling with a smaller woman and saw how men kind of "encroached" on her space-- I just didn't really understand that women get treated differently. And I agree-- that's messed up.

Even what I just said could be taken as-- women should "perform" being male, in order to be treated better/more secure. But that's just goofy. Why can't all ways be okay?

Watching the PBS special on the women archaeologists who brought up the early human finds out of a cave, I was struck by how judgmental my fleeting thoughts were. The work they were doing was dangerous, and required a high level of intelligence and education. So when they brought up the first finds, some of the women cried, and the older, bear-like man who was heading the team (but wouldn't fit down the hole) hugged them all with relief. My first reaction was to think 1. Professional women don't cry, and 2. That looks unsavory for a male superior to hug his employees. Then my next thought was-- whoa that's a lot of assumptions about gender and behavior that I've just made.

No conclusions-- just more pondering.

[celandineb]

*nods* I don't think there are really any definite conclusions to be drawn, either. Just lots of things to think about and be aware of, and as you point out, to be careful about making assumptions.