“More fundamental? You mean who does the cooking, washing up, vacuuming – stuff like that?”
“You are trivialising the issue.”
“No, I’m not: I’ll do anything to avoid vacuuming. So, if the hubby doesn’t do it, it doesn’t get done.”
“It shows.”
“How kind of you.”
“Don’t mention it. I mean how you perceive women.”
“As the superior gender, naturally.”
“Oh stop it! But it’s really worrying.”
“What is?”
“How The Economist sees women.”
“What have they written now?”
“This.”
“The main roadblock is safety: overall, 62% of people think it is too dangerous to cycle, and around 75% of women do.”
“Don’t worry; they haven’t excluded us from the human race – ha, ha, ha!”
“You sure?”
“Positive. I reckon what they were trying to say is this.”
“Overall, 62% of people think it is too dangerous to cycle, and, of those, around 75% are women.”
“That’s rather a relief.”
“Isn’t it just? But it’s not an isolated slip-up.”
“No?”
“Nope; these two are from The Sunday Times.”
“I have written columns in praise of everything from recruitment consultants to tall people, handsome people, women (…).”
“The road vehicles amendment regulations stipulate that ‘no person shall drive a motor vehicle on a road if he is using a hand-held mobile telephone’.”
“So how can you be sure that we are seen as fully paid-up members of the human race?”
“Trust me, I can. Anyway, we get our own back.”
“How?”
“Listen to this; also from The Sunday Times.”
“I have neither a husband nor a man at the moment.”
“Well, it does redress the balance somewhat.”
“But such illogical reasoning is not confined to gender.”
“No?”
“Nope. They were interviewing this industrialist on TV, and that’s what he said.”
“I’ll go abroad or anywhere else in the world where I can manufacture more cheaply.”
This got some chuckles, Anna. I am guilty of sometimes using the pronoun “he” to avoid “he or she,” which sounds awkward to me. Then I’ll use “she” in the next paragraph. The solution of rotating personal pronouns doesn’t thrill me, however.
I agree that this example was a bit controversial; I normally either use “he or she” or change the number of the noun to plural. In legal stuff, where precision is important, I’d go for the former – although I’m not mad keen on it either. 🙂
Reminds me of the sign outside this doctor’s clinic, “Doctor for women and other diseases”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Love it!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Well, now I can see why some women use their mobile phones while driving – they are allowed to. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
At least one advantage of being excluded from the human race! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
This got some chuckles, Anna. I am guilty of sometimes using the pronoun “he” to avoid “he or she,” which sounds awkward to me. Then I’ll use “she” in the next paragraph. The solution of rotating personal pronouns doesn’t thrill me, however.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree that this example was a bit controversial; I normally either use “he or she” or change the number of the noun to plural. In legal stuff, where precision is important, I’d go for the former – although I’m not mad keen on it either. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person