Skip to main content

Stereotyping Heterosexuals

While I find Michael Tan's op ed column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer interesting reading,I found his latest column Wanted:Female nothing but plain stereotyping of heterosexual males and their mothers! Awful!

While it is true that some mums do spoil their bratty boys, I don't think that all mums do spoil their kids. Also many boys do household chores though there are still some gender division of labour on the kind of chores done. If boys do chores, will they be as bratty as Mike Tan thinks they are? I know classmates from elementary school who come from a family of all boys and they do chores. Now no one doubts their masculinity. I also know a classmate who comes from a family of all girls. Now she had to do boy things like help dad fix the car. No one in his/her right mind would say she isn't feminine.

And what's wrong with "Diskarte"? Females also practise their own kind of "diskarte"? And what's wrong with "pare"talk? If the men are dealing with men then a man will need to be understood by other males. Now that doesn't mean that a man isn't gender sensitive.

And this takes the cake in pure gender stereotyping and prejudice and Tan writes " You won’t find women or bakla sleeping on the job." Oh puhleeze! Dear Mike the first research assistant I hired after getting my PhD was gay. Now his being gay never factored in my decision to hire him. I hired him on the basis of his qualifications. Unfortunately he was a slacker and slept on the job in the lab. I had no choice but to let him go. Apparently his night life affected his performance in his day job!

My mum's "kasambahay" was gay. She had to let him go since he was goofing off on the job. She had to let go her macho chauffeur (who had three common law wives). His having three women had nothing to do with his being let go but his laziness and attitude. The gay katulong and the macho driver had the same attitude.

Sleeping on the job has nothing to do with gender at all. Males have been fired for goofing on the job. Females have been fired for goofing off and so d0 gays. Laziness knows no gender!

If Mike Tan wants to prove the thesis that females and gays are more competitive in the workplace (as more females are now in the supervisory workforce) then don't make gender the issue. Use work performance and attitude. As laziness knows no gender then good performance knows no gender also.

If Mike Tan wants men to change then women and gays must too. In short everyone has to change his/her attitude. Gender must not be made the reason why a person cannot be a nurse or that a person cannot be combat soldier.

Now stereotyping gender isn't the way to go. Now in the name of political correctness in some places heterosexuals have been discriminated. Now discrimination also knows no gender.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kung bakit dapat maging wikang pambansa din ang Ingles

Isang kakatwang eksena ang nasaksihan ko sa isang pribabdong opisina kamakailan lang. Dalawang empleyado ang inatasang bigyan ng solusyon ang isang isyu tungkol sa logistics. Ang isa ang tubong Davao at ang isa ay taga Iloilo. Ang unang wika nila ay Cebuano (Bisaya) at Hiligaynon (Ilonggo). Ang dalawang wika ay halos pareho ngunit may mga katagang iba ang kahulugan sa isa't isang wika. Ginamit nila ang wika nilang kinalakihan at hindi sila nagkaintindihan. Ang nangyari tuloy ay gumamit na lang sila ng wikang Ingles! Yung na nga rin ang sabi ko. Mag-English na lang kaya kayo! At bakit di wikang Filipino ang ginamit nila? Sa totoo lang, marami pa rin ang hindi bihasa sa Filipino upang gamitin ito sa mga larangan tulad ng logistics. At hindi lamang sa mga larangang teknikal, sa mga biyahe ko sa ibat-ibat lugar sa Pilipinas, ang mga naka-paskel sa mga CR o palikuran tungkol sa pagtitipid ng tubig ay naka sulat sa 1)Wika ng rehiyon 2) Wikang Ingles 3) at minsa'y sa wikang Filipino S

Simoun's lamp has been lit, finally.. not by one but by the many!

"So often have we been haunted by the spectre of subversion which, with some fostering, has come to be a positive and real being, whose very name steals our serenity and makes us commit the greatest blunders... If before the reality, instead of changing the fear of one is increased, and the confusion of the other is exacerbated, then they must be left in the hands of time..." Dr Jose Rizal "To the Filipino People and their Government" Jose Rizal dominates the Luneta, which is sacred to the Philippine nation as a place of martyrdom. And many perhaps all of those executed in the Luneta, with the exception of the three Filipino secular priests martyred in 1872, have read Rizal's  El Filibusterismo . Dr Rizal's second novel is a darker and more sinister one that its prequel but has much significance across the century and more after it was published for it preaches the need for revolution with caveats,  which are when the time is right and who will in

President Manuel Luis Quezon's Code of Ethics

Being a denizen of Kyusi, in honour of the man who gave my city its name and for being the most colourful prez the Philippines ever had, I have the pleasure to post Manuel L Quezon's Code of Ethics on his birthday. Let us profit from the wisdom of the Kastila. 1. Have Faith in the Divine Providence that guides the destinies of men and nations. 2. Love your country for it is the home of your people, the seat of your affection and the source of your happiness and well-being. It's defense is your primary duty. Be ready to sacrifice and die for it if necessary. 3. Respect the Constitution which is the expression of your sovereign will. The government is your government. It has been established for your safety and welfare. Obey the laws and see that they are observed by all and that public officials comply with their duties. 4. Pay your taxes willingly and promptly. Citizenship implies not only rights but obligations. 5. Safeguard the purity of suffrage and abide by the decisions of