Selling the Drama

Hmmm, a time when I was discriminated against because of my gender? Well, not many times come to mind, as we Filipinos live in a more or less 'male dominated' society. This may be changing slowly as the country progresses, but evidently, some chauvinist ideals and values are still present in our society. Take Nikki's example with her father: She may not stay out as late as her younger brother, because she is female. This presumably is the consequence of the fear that she is more susceptible to rape, than her brother. Or the attitude that female drivers are inferior (ahem, hint, hint, nudge, nudge - just kidding.). So, being a male, I cannot recall any significant events. If there were any, then I would probably remember, seen as I don't, then I guess not. HOWEVER. What I have seen is girls take advantage of this situation sometimes. This is not to say that girls are opportunistic, as with many things, it is the case with a few, and I don't presume to make a sweeping generalization of the female attitude: these are just my experiences.

I remember a time during one of my classes in DLSC, that the whole class was asked to move the tables and chairs into a certain position. This of course entails manual work i.e. lifting, dragging etc. And not that I'm complaining (this is a delicate topic to speak about, it's a challenge not to appear sexist) but I guess the females in the group thought they were exempted from this task. Some stood at the side, others pretended to be busy with their phones, and none of the males asked them to help. Now to be fair, there were some males who weren't helping, but I guess that boils down to plain laziness, but the reason why so many females appeared idle, was a mystery to me. Is this perhaps one of the perks of being a female in the Philippines? Gentlemanly conduct dictates that you try to make women feel at ease etc. and being polite, but it just took me a bit by surprise.

Hmmmm.... gender discrimination... You know, come to think of it, I don't think it's ever happened to me significantly. Race discrimination: sure! Plenty of times. It's one of those problems that comes with being half. Here, I'm white: sometimes I get ripped off, sometimes they think I shit 100 dollar bills. In Europe, I'm brown: either mistaken for a Turkish immigrant, stealing jobs from Swiss people, or just in general for having a darker shade of skin...