Micro Acts of Feminism

[AntiqueBooks]

Hello

I heard somewhere about eg assuming a Dr is a woman so when someone says "the Dr will be along in a minute" you say "great I'll see her soon then".

Is there a book or a website or something that has more ideas like this?

Thanks

Good luck with playing your silly patriarchy chicken games until one day you will bump into psycho and the best case scenario he will knock you down unconscious or worst case scenario throw under the bus.

who pissed in your cornflakes?

feel good being vile to a disabled woman online does it?

sooo brave of you.

Actually not doing the wife work in an office serves a very important purpose - more than one, in fact.

Firstly it frees up time for women to do more promotable work

Secondly it teaches men that they can make cups of tea or do minutes if they try.

I don't actually find men won't move out of my way - it's the couples who refuse to let go hands and go single file!

A couple of years ago, after my mum died, I came across some of my old school work including my economics A-level work. I’d forgotten but all the way back in 1989 I religiously used female pronouns in the written work when referring to hypothetical business owners or Chancellors of the Exchequer. It really leaps out. I did the same in the exam and yes, I got an A.

NFWI’s resolution for the last year is Bystanders can be Lifesavers. The emphasis being on women!

I find some of the suggestions on this thread very sad. I work in a profession where I can say, hand on heart, that I’ve never encountered any sexism. I, a woman, was brought up with the understanding that holding the door open, giving up your seat for someone, complimenting someone, is a gesture of respect and kindness for a person of either sex.

I also employ the technique of looking past someone who is approaching me, but this works on men and women both, because the main cause of playing the ridiculous you go, no you go, game mainly appears to be eye contact. If you don’t make eye contact, the person coming the other way assumes you may not have seen them and automatically reroutes themselves. I am barged into on a regular basis by an equal proportion of both sexes.

Doing or not doing these things aren’t acts of micro feminism, and if I’m quite honest what I’ve read here seems to be accounts of many people who are trapped in a patriarchal prison of their own minds. Some people will do or not do these things because of a sexist mindset, but most people either self absorbed (of either sex), or are trying to be polite.

@Imbrocator
I'd love to know what industry you are in
as I've never found ANY (over the last 40 years)
where male priveledge and sexism are not utterly entrenched

as I said up thread,
ask the men around you what time their kids school kicks out
ask the men around you what size shoes their kids wear

if they do not now
you are in a sexist workplace
even though they may not realise it

I can’t share as unfortunately it’s likely to be outing. But I can confirm that all of my colleagues who have children are active, genuinely equally responsible parents, and if they didn’t know those things it would likely be met with rather a lot of surprise - it’s pretty much taken for granted.

I had expected a lot of sexism upon entering the field, but have honestly been floored by how many of the men I’d expected to have sexist attitudes (due to age etc) have been nothing but delighted to help progress my career and have respect for my skills and knowledge.

It’s been incredibly freeing, and most of all has made me realise how much sexism I carried in my own mind in terms of expecting to receive sexist attitudes (and being pleasantly surprised by not getting them) and interpreting small kindnesses or comments through the lens of them being sexist. It’s a rare moment to encounter it now, and mostly I think reflects poorly on the person who’s displaying those attitudes.

Ha Ha

NOBODY's Industry is outing.
I am an accountant.
I think you are blinkered about the reality of where you work

Health / Education / Accounting / Banking / Construction

Be more brave

I work in the care industry and to be fair there are equal men as women (support workers) requesting flexible working agreements to allow for school drop offs etc and there are just as many men as women who call in when their dc are poorly. The majority are not British born if that makes any difference?
The sexism I find in my company is middle management and upwards (who are mainly British born) but to be fair the company is trying to stamp it out and is led by a very strong female CEO but you can still see the ingrained misogyny coming out at times.

Love loads of these examples but actually I think women insisting they do heavy lifting/strength tasks for most women is the very opposite of feminism. Male upper body strength is something like 40% greater than female upper body strength. The physical differences between males and females are real, we are not men and shouldn't need to try to be. What men can do easily shouldn't be the default.

As for the holding doors open, I do this for loads of people both male and female. Loads of people, of both sexes, also hold doors open for me. What's the alternative? Just letting a door slam in somebody's face?

Have the...men found this thread?...

It seems so...

there can be a bit more to the lifting thing though. Yes, men are usually stronger than women. But sometimes they aren’t. DH had a period when he had a heart problem, and while waiting for a procedure to fix it he looked fine, could walk on the flat ok but had absolutely no capacity to exert himself further. So when we bought a sack of bird food I carried it to the car - which I was perfectly able to do. Some interfering git said to him ‘you should be doing that’. And DH (momentarily at least till common sense reasserted itself) felt bad about it.

And the other aspect of this is that if you have a male partner who always carries loads which are heavy but are within your capabilities, you’ll become less capable of doing it yourself than necessary.

Your DD is just being misleading and insulting, or perhaps she lacks knowledge. Ted Hughes was the Poet Laureate for 14 years. Sylvia Plath had made suicide attempts before they married. They were together for 6 or 7 years, and he lived and wrote for 25 years after she died.

(BTW, I don't much like Hughes' poetry, and I DO like much of Plath's. Probably reflective of my personality.)

Oh dear lord, I’m sure that posters daughter, and also anyone who is interested in Plath knows who Hughes was. Do you really not get the point there?

😂
Fucking he'll, she does it to prove a point. Women and their achievements are often linked to their male relatives (husband, father etc). She flips the script in a petty way.

Hopefully in the bookshop there'll be a biography of Mr Plath (male authored no doubt so we know it'll be accurate) and she can learn all about his achievements.

Loon.

I was told by a paramedic that women don't get cardiac attacks. No wonder women die of heart attacks if paramedics don't think they have any in the 1st place! A lot of them always assume stomach issues and panic attacks instead.

I'd love it if we could all start referring to 'the football' and 'England' when we mean the Lionesses, and then 'the men's football' and the England men's team'.

Telling my husband he looks pretty.

If this is aimed at me because I pointed out the physical strength difference between men and women, I'll give you an example. I buy 20kg (I think) bags of dog food at the supermarket, obviously they're kept on the bottom shelf. I'm a completely average size and strength female. I struggle to pick it up and put it in the trolly. I struggle to pick it up to scan it scan it. I struggle to get it in the car and out the other end. A completely average man would find all this a whole lot easier. Now I could just buy four 5kg bags, I can pick those up easily. I would then be paying the price premium because it costs more per kg. Picking up the heavy bag is not just more difficult for women, it places us at greater risk of injury while doing it.
Another option, I could just get it delivered. I don't get supermarket delivery often, but I've yet to see a female delivery driver. Females are perfectly capable of driving the vehicle, doing the paperwork etc. Lifting those heavy trays would be more difficult for them though. So women work on the checkouts instead. Who gets paid more I wonder?

Women are not being pathetic and helpless and weak waiting for a man to rescue them with his superior strength and lift the heavy thing. The heavy thing is just too bloody heavy!
You might disagree but I will continue to argue that women struggling to lift a load a man can lift easily is NOT a feminist act. Demanding lighter loads that women can lift easily as the default IS the feminist act.

It wasn't, @Kendodd, no.

With regard the public being less likely to perform CPR and use a difibulator on a women, and so women being more likely to die, needs addressing urgently.
I can completely understand why the public wouldn't do this. We can't ignore the fact that the chest of man and women are seen very differently, just look at male and female swim wear.
One change that could be made is make the dummy used for training default female (not male as they all seem to be) with realistic sized breasts (not perfect pert) and a bra that needs cutting off. This might improve things a bit. A better solution might be to develop difibulators that can be used with bra on if possible.

Reminds me when I worked in public service. Decades ago.
The default for writing to persons whose sex was unknown was Dear Sir.
Occasionally it would be Dear Sir or Madam.
I always wrote
Dear Madam.
The only complaint I ever had was from an older woman for addressing her as Ms Smith rather than Mrs.
I politely told her it was a standard setting.