Woe is man

Discrimination or logical tradition?

By Brody Steves, Contributor

My mother is a great cook, a capable driver, and a wonderful childminder. All of these talents have been on full display for the last 20+ years as she’s raised me and my three siblings. She enjoys being a mother and staying at home—leaving our father to head to the office every morning to make ends meet. We’re a happy family with few complaints who generally do little to rock the boat. We try to avoid radical and scarring new thinking.

Unfortunately, it should appear the rest of the world is not of a like mind. The U.K. passed their Sexual Discrimination Act of 1975 last year, an act whose intention is, “…to render unlawful certain kinds of sex discrimination and discrimination on the ground of marriage, and establish a Commission with the function of working towards the elimination of such discrimination and promoting equality of opportunity between men and women generally; and for related purposes.”

What does that even mean? The confusing wording almost leads one to believe that this is a positive step for humanity when it’s actually just a ruse by those few differently wired people who want to force their beliefs on others. There being a natural order to the world is hardly discrimination, and labelling it as such is not only highly irrational (much like your girlfriend when she says she’s fine) but a disservice to society. Young people have enough difficulty growing up well-balanced without having to worry about such nonsense.

It’s all so wildly unnecessary anyway. Women are allowed to go get jobs if they want—they’re just a better fit at home to raise the family. According to recent surveys: “47 per cent of women 20–64 years of age who were either married or living in a commonlaw relationship participated in the labour market.” Forty-seven per cent is nothing to shake a fist at. There are clearly women who aren’t bothered by whatever “discrimination” is being perceived by these raging feminists. Do they really expect there to be more than 50 per cent of married women wanting to work? My thought process shouldn’t be the one under fire here for sounding too crazy.

A section of the Act reads that a person subjects a woman to harassment if: “he engages in any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect— (i)of violating her dignity, or (ii)of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her.” It reads fairly reasonably until the implication of the text is fully realized. My father’s already started to notice some minor resistance in the workplace to such commonplace actions as ass slaps, but apparently this Act recognizes something as friendly as a pat on the butt to be discrimination.

What’s the world coming to? Many women even seem to enjoy such office camaraderie—why is the U.K. trying to destroy friendly tradition? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

On top of all of this, job ads have to be sexless now. This is completely out of order. If someone is hiring for their company they should have every right to pick whomever they want. If they happen to want to project a strong workplace dominated by men, who’s the government to say they can’t? What kind of a democracy is this if a business owner can’t control how their business is run?

In conjunction with the Equal Pay Act of 1970, this whole gender equality fiasco is getting out of hand.

Women’s earnings (as of 1972) are approximately 51.1 per cent of men’s—which seems about right. Men are generally better qualified and just handle the stresses of the world more efficiently. Pay should reflect that.

I don’t know what coming years will bring, and there are rumblings of a similar act coming to Canada in the near future, but it’s my hope that our generation can weather this baffling storm. Equality? Discrimination? Women don’t want to be at work any more than men want to be at home babysitting the kids. If this keeps up, you’ll have girls trying to enter positions ill-suited for their natural talents, such as leading companies, taking an active part in politics, and perhaps even flying planes instead of ensuring passengers have what snacks they need. Next thing you know, there’ll be a generation so turned around that the man will stay at home with the children while the women brings home the dough. Ha! That’ll be the day.