This morning a radio station had a ‘debate’ on whether or not men should play women’s sports. This sparked a conversation amongst my workmates that I overheard and questioned them on (I hadn’t heard the radio originally).
When I happened to mention that there’s no such thing as “women” sports, that it’s not actually possible for a sport to have a gender or a sex, I was told ‘yeah, like netball!’
I tried to point out once again that it is not possible and people need to shut up as anyone can play any damn sport they choose. Then the oldest male in the team jumped in and told me to calm down and relax and that no one was talking about discrimination and that it was just light banter. I’d like to point out I had been calm up to this point, and I was relaxed. I remained so much to my happiness.
I said that I hadn’t actually said that word either, but that anyone can play any game they choose and it’s stupid to say otherwise. Suddenly I had four people telling me to drop it and calm down and relax. Four males, two of whom weren’t part of the conversation prior to that moment.
For want of peace at work I dropped the subject and went back to what I was doing. A minute later the oldest again pointed out that it was just light banter. This is a full minute after I’ve dropped it and moved on with my work. Once again I tried to stay calm and told him that I had dropped it. I also said that if he wanted to keep going I was more than happy to, but that I had dropped it and he was bringing it up again.
At this point I finally got sweet silence from teh menz and a snorted ha! from my (woman) manager.
Save me from another day with these people.
