Have You Had Your Daily Dose of Gender Bullshit?

This weekend I went to see Niyaz in concert. The music was astounding and they invited us to dance while they played. So I did. I felt wonderful and alive and beautiful! They ended far too soon, but it meant that my friends and I got to hit the highway back home earlier, which meant we'd be home before midnight. Woohoo! On the way home though, my one friend mentioned that she and another friend have been tossing around doing Cabaret. They want the Kit Kat Girls to be drag queens, which I think as a concept is fantastic. My friend wants to direct it and said that she thought I'd make a great Sally. Uffda! That's huge. She surprised me with that idea. In my head, I was thinking, "I wonder who they want for Sally. They need a person with a lot of vocal and dance talent for that." Definitely not me in other words. However, as I was processing this bit of info, she added that her husband (who was driving) said I was too old. What the actual fuck?

You heard right, Goat. Too old. I wish he was joking.

I can think of plenty of reasons I should not be Sally, but my age ain't one of them. After all, Natasha Richardson was 35 I think when she tore up the role on Broadway. Seriously? My age is not the reason. If the Kit Kat Girls can be drag queens, then I could play Sally if I had enough confidence in my voice.Well hello there sexist, ageist bullshit. I've not missed you one iota. Especially not from a friend.

I agree, Giraffe. Fuck off on the age excuse buddy.

Then I wake up after the stupid time change (spring forward sucks ass) only to see reports of some idiot humping the statue of the defiant girl standing in front of the Wallstreet bull. Well who didn't see this coming? I did as soon as they announced the installation. Some idiot somewhere was bound to do this. Drunk or sober, someone was bound to do this because people suck, men are stupid, and sexism still exists. His only regret will be that someone caught him on film so he will always be the guy who humped the girl statue. Do I really need to go into why this man was wrong to do what he did? Do I really have to point out that it was a statue of a young girl and so his inappropriate gyrations is akin to acting out sexually assaulting a child? That's horrifying. People should be outraged by this and should not excuse it was a drunken indiscretion that harms no one. It does harm people. It does send a clear message that sexual assault and feminism are nothing more than a punchline for douche bags like this guy to mock with rapey behavior. Females are objects of sex in societies all over. Years and years of telling girls that he hits you because he likes you and boys will boys creates a culture where this kind idiocy is ok. Got news for you: it's not ok. 

Owl disapproves of attempts to excuse this asshat's behavior.

My friend who wants to do Cabaret then sent me an article link about this guy who couldn't figure out why his clients were suddenly being cold and questioning all his ideas in his emails. Turns out he shared a mailbox with a female colleague and was inadvertently signing his emails with her electronic signature. He was shocked. I wasn't. His colleague wasn't. It's kind of a big "Duh!" actually. Still, he sent a few emails to test his theory and signed some with his and some with hers only to discover that emails with the same content were received differently depending on the gender of the signature. Well golly gee! Thanks for validating what women have been saying all along. Thanks for opening your eyes to what gender studies have been reporting for eons. Hey look, everybody! It's everyday sexism right there in your inbox!

Pondering bear ponders the truths of yet one more man discovering that maybe listening to women is a good idea. Now that a man has said it, I'm sure it will all change. 

Then today, this vile piece of clickbait came along my newsfeed. I liked a page some time ago because they post thought-provoking quotations that I frequently enjoy and sometimes use as my profile banners, but this one was different. It was a body frame and weight chart for women. According to it, I am overweight, which is bullshit. This image was more than a little bit promoting the idea of  being smaller is better and females best be mindful of their weight because we weigh on average 20 pounds more than the average female a generation ago. Well, our diets are different and contain more processed ingredients, but the weights on this chart are definitely low for those heights, and BMI has been fairly well debunked as an indicator of health. Furthermore, why the fuck is a site that posts famous and thought-provoking quotations posting this bullshit? Just when I was calming down from that one, it got worse. Today the site posted something from 2013 about how a woman's butt shape is an indicator of health. What? I sensed the stupid was strong with this one, but again. Why the hell was this page posting such drivel? So I clicked it to find out what the hell this was all about only to be taken to a truly clickbait site. They were all sketches of female butts because this article was "especially for females" after all. Butt shape as a predictor has nothing to do with health warnings, but oh man! If your butt is shaped like an H, you're carrying to much extra fat in your love handles and you better get to the gym and do some squats. That's what this article was all about--the shape of your butt isn't right, means you have too much fat on this area, and you need to go address that problem right away in the gym. I unliked the page and stopped following it. I'm not up for the occasional body shaming in my timeline. If they want to stick to inspirational or profound quotations, that's cool. Telling me my butt needs work because it's not the right shape? Well, they can just fuck off. I don't need that bullshit in my life. 

White kitteh is annoyed and suggests Word Porn fuck the right off.

It's 2017 and this is still happening. It's 2017 and women will still be fighting this stupid bullshit for years to come. It's 2017 and people want to believe that equal rights are just fine and there's nothing to worry about and women should just stop complaining already! Guess what? Sexism, misogyny, rape culture--it's here to stay from what I can see. I don't want to believe that, but when it's 2017 and friends make comments about age rather than the obvious "She can't sing well enough" and men feel entitled to rub their junk on a statue of a child for a laugh or are just shocked by how women are treated at work and stupid sites post clickbait about how women's bodies will never be good enough, we haven't accomplished the goal of eliminating gender inequality. Everyday sexism people. It's here. It's not leaving. It's bullshit.

Bet mama moose has to go back to work soon because she doesn't have paid maternity leave.