I'm confused. Women these days are doing a hell of a lot of whingeing, whining and complaining, and not only when a man doesn't call them back or doesn't come home when he said he would.
As I write this I'm sitting at a coffee shop listening to the manager complain about the fact that her husband has had three affairs, doesn't give a "shit" about her and why she can't ever leave him – the kids, the property and the life he's given her.
"I don't want to have to lose it all and have to start all over again," she says.
A girlfriend calls to tell me that she hasn't yet heard from her long-distance boyfriend in what seems like forever (it's been two hours), and a third woman says she isn't sure that the dude she's dating is long-term boyfriend material because he's "way too nice". Say what?!
Sure, all this chatter and incessant whining is a little nauseating (but hard to avoid considering we women say a whopping 12,000 more words than men most days), and most gents would rather be organ-harvested than have to hear a woman drone on and on about her issues.
But aside from the usual man-not-giving-his-woman-enough-attention saga, there's another, albeit more pressing issue that women have started to whine about. I'm talking about the growing amount of sexism in the workplace, and the way it's infiltrated into romantic relationships too.
Case in point is that of three former female employees of Goldman Sachs who recently sued the bank over alleged unequal rights citing "unchecked gender bias".
While there were loads of folks who poohed-poohed their claim and put it down to another whining session from the fairer sex, the girls certainly got the media world debating the topic of whether sexism in the work place is really still very much alive, even after all these years of feminism, breaking glass ceilings and women fighting for equality.
Actress Lindsay Lohan recently said that sexism was rife in Hollywood citing the fact that while misbehaving female stars are shunned, men who do the same "keep their deals" and are only the more celebrated for their foibles. (Finally, the woman has a good point!) And feminist groups are getting their panties in a tizzy over a KFC advert in which college women bear a logo with the words "Double Down" on their butts (see video below), saying that it perpetuates sexism and female exploitation and that they are tired of fast-food companies using female bodies to promote their products. (I don't see anyone complaining about the almost nude blokes in Abercrombie and Fitch adverts or the latest Armani campaign!)
But what do the men think?
According to a recent Harris Interactive poll, over half of the blokes surveyed said they believed things were equal in the workplace, which either proves that women are blowing steam over nothing, or the men simply don't give a toss.
Ask the women and it's a very different response: 32 per cent said they feel they're often treated unfairly in the workplace, don't receive the say pay as men and are discriminated against when it comes to getting a promotion.
And it doesn't stop there. More women are coming out of the woodwork complaining they've been verbally and sexually assaulted at work; are being told what they can and can't wear, and are being treated mightily differently from the blokes they sit next to in the boardroom.
But here's what surprises me most: it's not only in the workplace that women are making complaints over the repercussions of sexism and unequal rights. Switch over to the bedroom and it seems there's a very similar story.
Women are complaining that men are no longer chivalrous (of course that depends which bloke you're dating), and, according to the same Harris Interactive poll, four out of five women say chivalry is dead … or at least on its way out.
I promised I wouldn't bring in the paying scenario yet again, but seriously – on the weekend one dude made my friend pay half the cab ride, another made me pay for dinner on our first date and a third insisted my girlfriend pay for the hotel room they were sharing for a dirty weekend away.
"Women are equal now," said one man when I asked him what was the story with all this ungentlemanly behaviour. "That's the way they like it … isn't it?"
See, here's the catch: we have women such as New York Times journalist Maureen Dowd asking whether men are even really necessary. We have scientists telling us there's a very real fear of males becoming extinct. And we have columnists (like moi) bringing up the fact that there's a real fear that we've reached an era in which it's the end of the alpha male as we once knew and loved him.
No wonder the poor blokes are confused. They think we don't need them and then they wonder why the heck we still want them to open doors, pay for our dinners, buy us cocktails and bring home the bacon when we decide we don't want to work any more.
So have we given blokes the wrong impression? Have we created our own sexism backlash? And are relationships suffering because of it all?
I think so. Because, biologically blokes still need to be the hero, even if it's just for their own self-esteem. Take away their jobs – as happened to so many during the financial crisis – or their ability to help us, look after us and step up to be "the man" in the relationship and they risk losing their identity, their confidence and their ability to be a good boyfriend / partner / husband / father. Take it from me who dated a dude without a job … I should know.
Sure we want to eradicate sexism. But not as a consequence of killing off chivalry at the same time.
Are women really being unfairly treated in the workplace? And what about when it comes to romantic relationships?
PS. Check out the KFC ad, see for yourself ...
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