A sad sight...

[yellowraincoat]

Yesterday as I was driving up the road I saw a BMX track. 5 or 6 lads using it while 3 or 4 girls stood watching them. No girls biking, no boys watching.

Why do you see this so much? Why are so many women standing watching while men do stuff? It really depressed me and made me feel that things will never move on or change.

Basil I hear you - I need to get out more again soon. (And really have to struggle against the rage, when it's "male bonding time" for my husband and his dad (golf) which is spent by the female part of the family with watching the kids.
Now, I hate golf, so don't mind not going along and don't begrudge it him to go, but it's just hate it when it's called that, and the "dinner being sorted for when the boys come home" thing around it.

The day of my gran's funeral, all the menfolk went to the pub and the women stayed at home.

This was in 2001, not 1935, if you were wondering.

You know what is really helpful running, a bit of feminist rage.

Just think about lapdance clubs, rape myths etc. It really gets your speed up!

Ah, yes, pubs. When I lived in the sticks Selby we went onto a night out with my work there - and I was given strange looks for drinking real ale as a woman.

Yes Widow, the pint of real ale shock horror thingy. Years ago, when you never saw a woman drink a pint I got that too (I'm talking decades back here But what was really bad was that it was women/girls then who said they wouldn't drink a pint either because it was "unladylike" or men/boys don't like women who drink pints.

They seemed bemused by me saying that I didn't give a flying fart what men/boys thought as it was none of their business.

It's an attitude I've always had and it's actually never done me any harm or held me back. Or stopped me having boyfriends or even marrying one of this apparently disapproving sex. In fact, I've come to conclusion that men aren't half so picky about women doing "unladylike" things as other women are.

Which leads me to think "so why do these women care so much what boys/men think anyway?" Women like that really brass me off - they are such simpering wimps.

I've only ever had women commenting about it, dudes couldn't care less what I'm drinking.

here we have backyard rail jam and all the boarders are out in force. they run events for both men and women and i think everyone just goes to watch the tricks... half the time i can't tell whether they are men or women anyway! there are certainly plenty of teen girls out in the terrain parks riding and jumping.

mind, we also have <a class="break-all" href="//www.www.fastandfemale.com/index.asp" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">fast and female which encourages 9-19yo girls to get out into the outdoors and commit sport...

One of our local pubs when I was a teen refused to serve girls pints [rural Ireland], the landlord and his head barman didn't even like serving girls and if you tried to get served in the Bar rather than the Lounge you would be ignored till all the MEN were served.

If you ordered a pint and he knew it was for a girl he'd serve you 2 halves and charge you more ie: a pint could be £1:40 a half would be 80p so he'd charge you £1:60 even thought you'd ordered A pint.

It being rural Ireland meant that we had more than one choice of pub so we stopped going, refused to meet friends, boyfriends in there, which meant he lost money. Sometimes money is the best weapon

I've never had women commenting on what I drink but I've worked in a couple of pubs where the landlords thought that women should drink halves and not only that, but in "ladies" glasses.

I never understood this behaviour with girls, I was the only girl that would play football or roller hockey, with the boys. The rest of the girls in the group would just stand and watch them.

thou at 18 when a big group of us were in a park in the summer and football was suggested, they were one down so i played, ( wasnt really that bothered at this age) When i took the ball off my boyfriend and scored he stormed off in a huff.

I was cheered by the boys and he was laughed at. The girls however said i shouldnt have done it, wtf!

It's not just young girls. I play in a few bands, am the only woman. The wives come and glower at me. Girls LISTEN, see. Men play. Stupid me not getting it.

OBVIOUSLY I only do it to steal their husbands.

I, only slightly, pity DD's headmaster after the school started putting on cheerleading classes for the girls. He'd never seen me in full flight before. While I take the point that cheerleading is a physical activity and can be quite athletic, it reinforces the sterotype that boys do, girls cheer them on.

It starts early and is reinforced all the way through. It's one of my bugbears, how little women's sport is promoted in the media, so it's really little wonder that girls instinctively think is sport something boys do.