Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sexism in the home

A Southern Electricity employee comes round to read the meter. This is no easy task, as it sits behind a fixed panel, near the ceiling in the office downstairs. As the taller member of our domestic partnership is away for the day, I haul out the stairs and the tool kit. "Right, Phillips head screwdriver" I mutter to myself.

"Oooh," cries the meter man. "Well done! Not many women know what a Phillips head screwdriver even is!"

I take a deep breath and refrain from plunging said screwdriver into his head and removing an eyeball and what few brains sit behind it. After all, I would hate to perpetuate the boring notion that feminists don't have a sense of humor. Or ruin a perfectly good Phillips head screwdriver.

2 comments:

Simon said...

An obvious question is "Is the guy right?" That is, if you took a general survey of a random sample of 100 men and 100 women and asked them what a Phillips head screwdriver is, what would the results be?

By the way, *I* don't know.

Simon

Norfolk Dumpling said...

Which is my point. Why not say "Most people don't know what a Phillips head screwdriver is"? Thus, you avoid giving offence (to a woman who clearly knows and is holding one).

It's the screwdriver with the pointy end, by the way, rather than a flat-head screwdriver -- which isn't pointy, obviously.