CharlieJulietTango

Workplace consultancy firm The Dream Collective have found that 48% of white collar professional men surveyed feel fatigued by the notion of gender equality. 52% feel that women are favoured for jobs and promotions on the basis of their gender. I just, like, paused for 7 minutes because I can’t even begin to process how irate this makes me. I’m aware that I’m not a white collar professional, I have a quite nice blue collar, but I work in one of the most testosterone fuelled dick swinging environments outside of the NRL, and I’m fucking fatigued, too.     I’m tired of derivative gender diversity initiatives aimed at improving women. Women make up 25% of the organisation I belong to and 10% of the trade I belong to. It doesn’t matter how brilliant we are, and let’s be real, we are fucking brilliant, we cannot continue to be the only demographic responsible for driving culture change. We can’t mentor women out of this problem, because, and this bit is important – women are not th...

  The car park at Katherine Woollies has signs at all the entries that say something like “no caravans permitted.” But every dry season, every day, there’s, and I don’t think I’m being rude here, entitled fuckers who park there anyway. Because it’s only one caravan, right? And they’ll only be like 5 minutes, right? (Hot tip – they fucking won’t be.) The entitled fuckers don’t think it’s a problem. It won’t matter, they’ll be quick. But locals deal with 10 of these entitled fuckers every day, for 90 days of the year. It’s fucking grating.   This is what it’s like being a woman in an industry dominated by men. The effects of everyday misogyny, and overt sexism are cumulative. When men say things like “you’ll have to explain to your wives why their Tupperware has been thrown out when you leave your shit in the fridge,” and “sadly our mothers/spouses aren’t here to clean up after us,” and “I can’t wait to go to the Winellie on Friday arvo aha ha ha ha ha ha…” it’s not the first t...

Do men say sexist things because they think it’s funny to say it, or are they legit misogynists who view women as ornamental things that exist to satisfy their gaze? I know, I know, #notallmen are misogynists, but enough are complicit and refuse to call out mates who are.     In a similar vein to the disappointment who demanded I smile for him, another stellar example of a basic bro stated it was preferable to deal with me than one of my colleagues because “Caitlin’s easy on the eye.” I’m also quite good at my job, and I’m aware that making that statement freaks men out because women are either competent or likable, but very rarely both, and by owning this I’m not conforming to gender norms which is threatening because shit, if not for the patriarchy, how many other women would think they’re better than us?     I can’t figure out why he said what he said. Was he making a joke? I mean, that is a shit joke. It isn’t even funny. Is the humour supposed to be found in poi...

No, I Won’t Smile, But I’ll Show You My Teeth A man told me to smile at work a couple of   months   ago. And I’m still trying to process it.  And I clearly haven’t processed it, and it obviously is an issue, because I told my psychologist about it. Her reaction, incidentally, was “fuck, is that really still happening?” A man, junior in rank, senior in age, rounded a corner, walked into me, and demanded I smil e. I had an oh so familiar surge of adrenalin, that painful rush in your gut when you experience something that you know isn’t cool. (For context, this happens to me daily. It’s not always casual sexism, it’s not always a legitimate threat to my safety, but it happens daily.)   If you’re rolling your eyes right now, I get it. I do. There are many causes deserving of our attention. Sheikh Jarrah. The vaccine stroll-out. Enforcing a really simple “don’t contact the head” rule. Microaggressions are a death by a thousand cuts when you experience the disrespect, feel...