Gender Bender

This is going to be a bit of a rant so bare with me.

Ok, so generally through out my life I figured the world was mature enough and advanced enough to eliminate the lines drawn between men and women.

My Grandpa adored history, so naturally so did I. Ever since I was a very young child I was immersed in books and other forms of media depicting the lives of girls in the different eras of the world, different places and time periods. I understood that girls used to be viewed as inferiors. We are physically the weaker sex. It's no ones fault, it's just the truth. We used to be seen as child bearing sub humans who would cook and clean and do as told or directed to do.

So generally, I figured that since my mom had a well paying job and wasn't bare footed and pregnant in the kitchen our society had progressed past the notion that women have brains and boobs.

I mean, I genuinely thought that until recently. Boy was I wrong.

So recently (or well, not so recently, but more recently than most things) I was hired as a lifeguard and swim instructor at one of my local pools. My job is awesome, and I simply adore it, and MOST of the people I work with.

Often enough people compliment me on my ability to work with kids, and teach them. I pride myself in being able to (for the most part) communicate with kids and get them to listen to me.

That was, until I started working for this lovely supervisor.

I mean, I get it. He works two jobs, has a long term relationship with a lovely girl, and just wants everything to run smoothly. He's probably under a lot of stress and pressure.

That said, it is not an excuse to chew our your coworkers just because you're in charge.

This man always seems to have something to criticize. There is no pleasing him. He expects us to read his mind and totally agree with him 100% of the time.

News flash honey, that's not how society works.

I mean, I see it as rather unfortunate for him that he can't control his emotions and anger, because that's something you really need to work on. What really drives me up the wall is that he targets the younger lifeguards and especially the female ones.

Like, seriously. He has told me off a couple times for doing something THE RIGHT WAY. I just don't get it. What kind of twisted brain do you have to have in order to believe that women are below you? Without your mother you wouldn't be on this planet. She carried you for 9 months, gave up her banging body to nurture you and let you grow inside her feeding off her life source and energy. She went through the pain, the bloating, the excruciating pain of your birth just to set aside at least 18 years of her life to look after you and raise you, yet you don't show respect for her gender?

The more I think about it, the angrier I get and the more I can draw parallels to my other job. For those of you who don't know I was also a Tae Kwon Do instructor for 4-5 years before I became a swim instructor.

Now most people consider martial arts as boy sports. I really disagree with that and urge everyone to at least try one form of martial arts because they really are amazing and it doesn't hurt to know how to defend yourself. Anyways, when I used to work there my master would always favour the boys over me. I used to think that this was because they were older and more experienced, but as I grew up and gained the age and experience they had I realized that it was simply because they were "stronger" than me.

It's so stupid to think all of this and I really wish we lived in a world where everyone was created equal and had the same opportunities as everyone else.

But what can you do, the world is far from perfect.

Anywhore, that's my two cents about the subject. Feel free to state your opinion, and till next time my internet hipsters!

Rage&Love

-Caitlin
xoxo