Anti-sexism run amok
One of my favorite sites, Autoblog, ran the following story today. I … I just don’t … oh, I’ll just let it speak for itself.
“Spanish road signs to undergo sexism sensitivity training
Reuters is reporting that a Spanish town council known for its socialist leanings and support of feminist causes has voted to banish sexism from street signs. With all of the signs and crosswalk signals currently showing male figures, they felt it was high time to make some changes. Half of all future road signs and traffic lights will have to show female silhouettes. The figures will sport skirts and ponytails, because women never wear pants, apparently.
The town of Fuenlabrada is located south of the Spanish capital of Madrid. They have vowed to replace all of their old or damaged road signs and traffic lights with ones bearing the new images within a year. “In this way the sexism which until now has seen only masculine figures appear in traffic signals will be brought to an end,” the town council’s statement read. The town has promised that the changes won’t cost any extra money. Sign suppliers will simply be instructed to use the new female symbols on a go-forward basis.”
An image of the new design (possibly) can be seen on the original page, but what you really need to do is read some of the comments at the bottom, such as:
“It is so sexist that they cornered women into the stereotype of long hair & skirts. Some women have short hair and wear pants. This sign is also discriminatory against fat women, pregnant women, short women, women in wheelchairs…and most of all, women with feet.” -Shawn
“… as an asian, I am bitter that all the people in the signs are black. I think 20% should be white, 20% black, 20% red, 20% brown, and 20% yellow to have a diverse demographic representating equal opportunity.” -Aki
November 16th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
Here’s my $0.02: I’m all for equality in sexes/races/religions/etc. It shouldn’t matter. But let’s focus on the big ticket items that actually make a difference…like pay scales and whether or not you can even get hired or get a loan or whatnot.
When I was 5 my mom and I had to move. We were renting this lady’s house and she wanted to sell it. She gave my mom the first opportunity to purchase the house. The house was fairly priced, my mom had the down payment, was gainfully employed and funny enough, the mortgage payment would have been less than what she’d been paying for rent. But the bank wouldn’t lend her the money. Why? Because she didn’t have a husband who could sign on the loan too. The bank simply didn’t loan money to single women. So we had to move.
I bought a condo when I was 23. I was a single woman. And they loaned me money…no husband, no cosigner. Just me. THAT’S the whatnot that matters.