Lying here in bed with "man flu" got me thinking about the concept of cliches and stereotypes and whether they are necessarily always a bad thing. I think most right-minded menfolk would accept that we, as a general rule, tend to ridiculously overreact when we are ill whereas the female of the species is usually a bit tougher.
Going further I am happy to accept that certain male stereotypes are, in my case, absolutely spot on; I never admit I'm wrong, I can't do two things at once and I certainly never look properly for anything when it is missing. But surely that is the point? These things are stereotypes and cliches because they generally are true.
There seems to be a politically correct driver to say that you can't use stereotypes or cliches (certainly not as much as you used to be able to) because they might be offensive. But the fact of the matter is that these things don't exist randomly, we say "women can't park" because over the years there have been enough instances of women being unable to park that people have started to make a generalization. In the same way, not all men hate shopping but enough of us would rather pull or teeth out than do it so it becomes a "norm".
I guess I'm moving towards a more general point here, one of equality and a "level playing field". Sorry to say this people but to me it is an artificial equalisation of the genders that doesn't actually improve the situation. I am not going to stand here and say that only men can be race car drivers or only woman can be nurses because that is clearly bunk. People should be given the opportunities to do what they have the talent, drive and ability to do. And two people doing the same job should be paid the same regardless of whether they are male or female.
But I also firmly believe that the differences amongst the genders (and you can extend this to different races, age-groups, sexual orientations or whatever) are things to be celebrated and add to the vibrancy and variety of life. We need to get away from this belief that we can't categorise or generalise about people because it might be offensive or because it might create inequality.
Yes, under the wrong circumstances inequality is a terrible thing but it is more how we perpetuate certain inequalities rather than the fact of the imbalance itself. Life is the greatest creator of variety and inequality there is, and life will thrive and survive long since we have stopped talking about man flu or the supposed inability of women to understand the offside rule!
True equality to me doesn't mean standardising, equalising or normalising but it stems from allowing every single person on the planet to utilise their strengths and talents and embracing and harnessing those differences to create a dynamic environment that benefits all.
That sometimes includes accepting that some groups of people simply have different innate skill sets which we should celebrate and not be afraid to embrace. I am perfectly happy to accept that I am behaving like a typical man with this "illness", and I don't think that is a bad thing really.
Today's #randomfactoftheday - The last formally Ratified Amendment to the US Constitution (the 27th) was proposed on the same day (25th September 1789) as Amendments 1-10 (The Bill of Rights). However it was not formally ratified until over 200 years later (7th May 1992).
Today's #badjokeoftheday - Q: What do you call a man with a car on his head? A: Jack
Today's #websiteoftheday - All the ice melts, what happens? (http://www.fascinatingpics.com/maps-of-what-the-earth-would-look-like-if-all-ice-melted/)
On this day: 1865, Abraham Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude.
Till next time
DT
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