I reckon there will be a bunch of people who’ve read some of the posts on this mailing list today who’ll be saying, “I don’t see the problem. It’s just a bit of harmless fun. Doesn’t hurt anybody.”
Guys say that all the time, never realizing that the only reason they're able to say it is because they’ve typically been utterly indifferent to whether their fun is, indeed, “harmless,” or whether it has hurt anybody. I don’t know, perhaps parents of girls have a different view. Perspective and experience. The reason it usually passes without mention is because most women, having put up with it for their entire living memory, are so sick of it that they can’t be bothered going through the exhausting rigmarole of engaging anymore, and just remove themselves from situations where it’s a problem; and because so many men, harboring a cataclysmic failure of empathy, don’t even notice the reactions of women, and just let it slide without saying anything. “The secret life of women.” http://i.imgur.com/OigLS.png (I know the cartoonist: He told me some of these quotes were provided by his daughter) In case you haven’t noticed (and I’m almost certain that some of you actually haven’t), gliding is almost entirely dominated by men. There’s no physical reason why that should be the case. There’s also no innate gender-based difference in skill to explain it either. I’m going to say it’s cultural: The traditions and attitudes present at gliding clubs all over Australia are, either overtly (like today’s email messages) or subtly (like so much of everything else) repulsive to women. I’ve seen so many women enjoy their AEF, stick with it for a couple of weekends, and never come back. And thousands of pilots barely ever wonder why that’s the case. Over time, gliding clubs become male ghettos, all over Australia. “What we walk past, we accept.” When we’re learning to fly, the first lesson we’re taught is stability. The second lesson we’re taught is how to change our attitude. This community seems absolutely excellent at stability. When it comes to sexism, maybe it ought to be skilled enough to master attitude. There’ll no doubt be replies to this message. I’ve said my piece, I’m not going to respond to any of them them. But I, like everyone else who reads them, will be making character judgements regardless. If you find that idea challenging, perhaps take 24 hours to have a good hard think about why. Fin. - mark [ I will also reserve judgement over whether off-list replies should be forwarded to the list. There will be no shadows here. ]
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