Is there anyone who isn’t aware that last Thursday was International Women’s Day?

I doubt it.

Normally these “celebratory” days slip by leaving us all in peace but for some reason Thursday was more noticeable this time around.

I happened to be extremely busy on Thursday [did anyone notice I skipped my usual mental meanderings?].  It was one of those days where suddenly I had a whole load of things to contend with and to cap it all I had to go to a sort of a meeting in Skobieville which took up half the day.

However I got into the car to drive home from Skobieville and the radio happened to be switched on.  It was the news, and I swear I heard a snatch of an item [pun intended] about Women’s Day and some airline using all female crews for the day.  For fuck’s sake!  The thought did cross my mind whether they had announced this in advance but I doubt it – too many cancellations!  Anyway I quickly switched to another station only to find they were playing all female artists for the day.  I switched off.

Now if I were a woman, [and I’m not, or at least I wasn’t the last time I looked] I would be rather pissed off at all this.  I would find it incredibly patronising and condescending.  It sounded like a “let’s give the little women a chance” kind of day. In fact the very action of having an International Women’s Day is only enhancing the concept that women are different and therefore is inherently sexist.

When I go about my business outside the home it never even occurs to me to ponder on the gender of my bus driver, airline pilot or whatever I come across in the course of a day.  Equally I don’t differentiate between the genders when I make a phone call and the only time I am ever different [and somewhat tetchy] is when I get some goon who can’t speak English.  Sex is irrelevant to me in my daily course through life and the only time it is of vital importance is if it involves a drop of how’s-your-father.

Women want equality.  They already have it in law so I presume they just want to be equals in society?  As far as I am concerned they already have that and the only time gender difference is highlighted is when they scream about it, thereby underlining the difference that they so apparently detest.

Just a thought – I wonder if those female airline pilots insist on stopping every now and then to ask for directions?