This post is based on sexism of a different nature in Blighty, giving evidence of ignorance towards men in the 21st century. This would imply there has to be improvements made in the workplace in Blighty. I do not wish to use the proper term for the UK, as this has to come across as anecdotal, but it is a serious subject is a hard pill to swallow in some circumstances. If you have never read Weird and Wonderful posts, I always have a theme which runs to the heart of my rants; explaining how frustrating it is to live in a country cocooned with ignorance, inequality and the recent topic is Gender Accusations and Ignorance. To display the past posts briefly:
A Blighty Tale: “English Subtitles have now become voiced over.” Whilst watching the news immediately you are confronted with colloquial tones not text whilst you are watching the French President. I am thinking, no but I am enjoying hearing French. I found this rather rude considering they had been through a very tragic event. Language is very important even in business. The UK are now rank 15 of the worlds richest countries.
A Blighty Tale: “Chavs Paradise! The divide and conquer approach to culture.” I felt it was necessary to write about the categorisation of such people and the failure of the government to make society equal. Not giving people the opportunity to break free from the chains of poverty. Some would not like to be associated with people such as these, because they are striving and fighting for their own lives. Education is not free in the UK and unfortunately due to lack of education means their children are put at risk. I feel I do not wish to be associated with these people because they are automatically put in the “at risk” category for child abuse. Instead of people paying more taxes to help people at the bottom, most of the ignorant people are expecting mothers to become the next J. K. Rowling. Not everyone has the ability to be J.K Rowling. You need to consider her drive, as she was going through divorce;Many women have not been married and suffer financial deprivation.
A Blighty Tale: “What the British are really laughing about by the Leveller.” The Prime Minister been allegedly forced to have sex with a pig for a dare whilst being apart of the Bullingdon Club in Oxford. I mean come on, as if the whole country was not embarrassed enough: actually most of the country are too busy working over the threshold hours, to take notice of such stories. These people then vote for tyrants and wonder why they are not being paid enough to pay back loans.
A Blighty Tale: “The reason for the lack of humanity.” I feel I describe “Pompous rhetoric” rather well in this post because I know that ignorance is bliss. It is a charade of ignorance where now, Junior Doctors are unable to survive on their low income to pay for their student debt. The media in the UK has been a power house, keeping the fuel ignited in the hearts of the people: making them hate people who want to help others. Helping people is apparently charity on all levels!
A Blighty Tale: “Fascination for Indecent Exposure.” Streaking and all the lovely things I enjoy about the UK. There are 43 nude beaches and the most cultural shock of all: people expose themselves to young women on the street, even though there are 43 nude beaches. This has psychological studies attached to it and I felt it was necessary to discuss how, over sexed content the media has infringed on the young and has left them vulnerable. I had not mentioned the facts about 8 year old’s having the opportunity to buy thongs in shops. Shockingly so! Oh and Pornography is free in the UK.
5 Things Deserving A Two Fingers Salute!” Part 2
Slum landlords and an inability to keep up with the growing population. I feel, I mentioned some of the most deprived states this country has witnessed since the 19th century.
After covering all these subjects I feel it is worth mentioning the sexism witnessed in Blighty. No this is not from a feminist angle, at all. I have called myself weird and wonderful for a reason.
I wanted to discover why things are unequal education and healthcare in terms of the workforce. Also, why women cannot get full time employment after they have children to pay off their student loans. This is because of my own situation, also I have seen other countries, not, behave in the same manner towards situations. According to statistics from “Women, men and part-time work,”by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2013):
“The vast majority of men in employment work full-time (86-87 per cent) compared to just over half of all women in employment (56-57 per cent). Significantly more women in employment work part-time (43%) compared to men (13%). Therefore, although more women work full-time than they do part-time, unlike men, the difference between those working full and part-time is not as stark.”
Yes, it is frequently said that women have child care responsibilities but this would have been okay back in 1955; a woman did not have a student loan to pay off, plus, other expenses like an accumulation of debt if she was not married. As previously stated before.
The shocking revelation whilst trying to think of positive aspects to equality, is definitely the subject of men not working in child care. They are immediately given a sexist kind of speech:
“But you are a bloke…. wouldn’t you want to get paid more money so your girlfriend or wife can do that job!”
I am not saying I am not a good mother or a bad one. I would prefer to see an equal mixture of both men and women in the work place, to balance out the environment. I do not feel comfortable working with a bunch of women all the time. Why?
- They like to gossip when you are not working with them.
- Large groups of women like to talk about their bodily functions too much and it becomes uncomfortable.
- I think I am secretly a man trapped in a woman’s body but I like men. (Humour is necessary for the information to be absorbed)
I feel a lot more people feel the same about certain situations. I had a friend who recently experienced working for a nursery in the UK and she felt as though she had been subjected to bullying after being their for a month. As evidence from an article found ‘Childcare is not just a woman’s job’ – why only two per cent of the day nurseries and childcare workforce is male’ (2015):
“The survey of 1,200 mothers and fathers who use childcare found that almost all (97.9 per cent) parents are happy for men to work with children aged three to five in day nurseries.
However, the percentage of parents fell to 89 per cent when it came to younger children aged from birth to two. Of the remaining 11 per cent, only 3.2 per cent of parents were unhappy for men to work with such young children.”
So there is a distinct level of sexism running through out, because of the amount of bullying being displayed. It is okay to have a mixed environment. However, time and again men are being centre of attention for sexual offences and paedophilia Crime in England and Wales, Year Ending March (2015):
“Sexual offences recorded by the police rose by 37% with the numbers of rapes (29,265) and other sexual offences (58,954) being at the highest level since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002/03. As well as improvements in recording, this is also thought to reflect a greater willingness of victims to come forward to report such crimes. In contrast, the latest estimate from the CSEW showed no significant change in the proportion of adults aged 16-59 who reported being a victim of a sexual assault (including attempted assaults) in the last year (1.7%).”
I feel honestly this is just an excuse, because the figures all though they have increased means that public, still have, the perception of not trusting men to be in that environment. I mean, it is pretty accusing from the aspect of women working together in a work place: then creating a bullying, discriminating environment, to the point where – men just do not want to work with them and they do not see an all female environment as productive, or, effective.
I feel I am not feminist, but this attitude also flows through health care and the level of discrimination for men in these areas are too common. It does make women look rather shallow. I feel it is not necessary to have bullying in the work place, especially if, you are looking after vulnerable individuals who cannot answer back. As more proof for the lack of compassion towards men is shown in School Workforce in England: 2014
“Four out of five school staff members are female. In 2014, 80 per cent of the full-time equivalent number of employees working in schools were female. There has been a very small increase compared with 2013 when 79.7 percent were female. 79 per cent of school support staff and 91 per cent of teaching assistants are female. Almost three out of four teachers are female. Female teachers account for 74 per cent of all teachers. Although there is a more pronounced difference by phase. For example, 85 per cent of primary school teachers are female compared with 62 per cent of secondary school teachers.”
I feel it is necessary to pull out a graph drawn by the Department of Education (2014):
Now that I have this lovely display here of the figures; can you spot what they are trying to do?
- The display of the graph is changing the women into the colour blue. Blue isnormally associated with men.
- If you were glancing at this graph you would assume that men are predominant in Education in the UK.
- Is this a form of deception?
Now I am just stating the obvious because Education is not at the forefront of people’s minds in the UK. Seriously, 20-25% of primary schools in the UK taught a second language before 2000. This is like an introduction into languages. I was fortunate to have the experience of French, and we even had a trip to France. Many in my class dread that experience but it was actually quite fun. Considering the UK is meant to have this diverse background it is quite a concern, so many, are so quick to be ignorant towards other cultures and backgrounds. Even towards those who want to move away. Please have a look at a nice graph from “languages: the state of the nation Demand and supply of language skills in the UK,” British Academy for Social Sciences , (2015):
I really need to highlight the great importance of this all. Not because I am trying to start a revolution, but if the ignorance towards men was not bad enough: it is the ignorance towards other cultures that makes it seem rather unjust. We are talking about a century worth of Imperialism on top of this “accusation and ignorance”
“HIGHER EDUCATION • 2011 Languages designated SIVS by HEFCE. Additional funding made available through the Routes into Languages Programme
• 2012–13 Intake English Students must pay tuition fees of up to £9,000 p/a. Early evidence suggests this may disincentive taking 4-year language degrees, Erasmus or a Year Abroad.
Secondary Education
• Languages are compulsory from 11–14, although schools with Academy status are exempted from following the national curriculum
• 2004 Languages made optional post-14
• 2011 43% of the cohort took a foreign language GCSE (down from 78% in 2001)
• 2011 The English Baccalaureate requires a good pass in a modern or ancient language GCSE. Evidence suggests this is boosting uptake amongst high achieving students only.
Primary Education
• Early 2000s 20–25% of primary schools teach foreign languages
• Since 2002 Rapid implementation of language teaching following National Languages Strategy
• 2007 56% of primary schools offer languages • 2010 92% of primary schools offer languages
• 2012 Languages on track to become part of primary national curriculum from 2014”
Highlighting the British Academy of Social Science report by Teresa Tinsley (2015). Showing the lack of compassion and the inability to elicit equality and fair attitudes for those who live in the UK. I know that my primary school headmaster was proud of his role, he would make English and other languages the forefront of our curriculum.
R.I.P Mr Billingham: I felt, he had embarked upon something truly magnificent because he was man in the field of Education. This is prime example of why I think I am not sexist. He contributed his ideas and then made the school one of the 20-25 % to give pupils the experience, of learning another language before 2000. I think this is why, I would always see that equality is not just shown throughout healthcare, but respected in the field of Education. I truly adore Mr Billingham and have many creative stories to write about him, however, the importance of this post is to show; men are not treated equally in these important fields. As a woman, I feel, men need to be in these areas of work : this is demonstrated in the neglect of vulnerable people. People who are passionate about the way they teach, or, the way they care; do not listen to the media but find it hard to be treated fairly when constantly attacked in the accusing manner by the newspapers, or, journalists. I am honouring the fact that Mr Billingham encouraged everyone to learn in a different manner and even empowered parents to think about the future of their child.
The newspaper articles and the way that people behave is enough for everyone to wonder what is going to happen to the island of Blighty. There are not many opportunities and many people do not feel respected when they do come here to work. Also, the introduction of learning other languages has been optional as you can see above. This is the whole point: it breeds ignorance even for the opposite sex as far as I am concerned.
Conclusion
Sexism is not just about females and although I wrote a piece about discrimination and stereotypes: Do you realise you are stereotyping yourself?(2015) I am not blaming feminism for this cause of neglect and discrimination, I am stating my opinions using my example of my headteacher. The views of certain individuals are potentially dangerous for others who are not from the UK. The blanket Gender accusation and ignorance means that work is difficult to achieve, if you are female and not able to get along with other females. I like my environment mixed because I am not an alpha female. I know many who would prefer a mixed environment because of the safety of individuals. I also prefer talking to males because my dad raised me, I do not have a problem admitting that I am a woman who was raised by men. I am not sexist because I could see the manner in which men have been treated; the pay is so low that men are discouraged from being apart of these fields.
I was trying to prove how beneficial men are in Education. They have business accoutrement they are able to bring this approach to Education and healthcare in terms of being able to adjust and adapt to environments. There is little time for gossip, or comments for people to make about other’s, and being acutely discriminated against is a waste of time on your body and your mental health: your well-being diminishes and makes you less productive. This also is vital for the production of a society not accuse the opposite sex in an industry that needs both men and women so society, becomes more effective and equal.
Weird and Wonderful 