If you read the stories of the victims of Pervnado you encounter the same story, again and again. When the victim in question was touched or otherwise subject to a male's power play, she froze.
That is a problem. Either women can take care of themselves in public places or... well, Sarah Hoyt thinks that corporations just won't want to hire women any more: too much trouble. Given that a man can now be fired just on the accusation of a woman, it means that no sensible man will want to be around women in the workplace.
So I have a solution. Basic Training for Babes in the Workplace.
The problem of "freezing" at a frightening moment is not just a problem for women in the workplace. It is a problem for soldiers in wartime.
Yeah, that's right. Armies have a big problem with training their soldiers not to freeze when frightened out of their wits. So do airlines, when it comes to an emergency in the air.
So what do these outfits do? Perfectly simple. They train their employees to deal with emergencies, to follow orders when the skies are falling, and not just emergencies in general, but what to do, step-by-step, in specific emergencies.
I have experienced how that works in my own life. For several years I was a soaring pilot, flying gliders. The big problem in gliding is what to do if you don't find lift from a thermal and cannot get back to your home airfield. In that case, you have to "land out," probably in a farmer's field. So you get trained how to pick a suitable field, how high up you need to be to do a proper approach pattern, and above all, when to make the decision to land out. In my soaring days I found myself too low to return to base twice, and both times I followed my training and set myself up for a land-out in a suitable field. But both times, as I was flying the approach pattern to land, I found lift and was able to abort the approach and circle in a thermal and eventually return to my home base.
Despite all the fear and adrenaline I followed my training, and I can see why. When you have the option between: heading for home hoping against hope that you make it, and a procedure drilled into you by your training that has a safe result ending up in a suitable field, you go with the "safer" option.
In the aftermath of US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River after a bird strike that knocked out its engines, I got to read a few articles about airborne emergencies. The experts said that when there is an emergency in the air, flight crew do what they are trained to do.
Then there was Air France 447 that crashed after getting into clouds in the tropical convergence zone. Reading the reports on the accident I was amazed at the cluelessness of the flight crew. They clearly had not been properly trained to deal with a stall situation: so they panicked and flopped around and lost their lives, and the plane, and the passengers.
So, when it comes to women in the workplace we have two options. Either we place women in protected safe spaces, or we train them to deal with a variety of unwanted attentions.
If we decide to put women into safe spaces, then we are saying that the whole business of women's liberation was a failure, because women are just too frail and risk-averse to deal with threats against their person. Bring back the patriarchy.
So the only sensible alternative is Basic Training for the Workplace. I am not talking about martial arts and well-aimed kicks in the groin. I am talking about training women to respond automatically to the kind of aggression practiced by the Harvey Weinsteins and the Matt Lauers of the world. Oh, and the Joe Bidens of the world:
And frankly, it would be a good thing if women just automatically followed their training before worrying about creating a scene, as above or worse, thinking about whether there might be an angle to going with the flow and hoping for a quid pro quo for a bit of nookie.
Oh, and it would really help if the Harvey Weinsteins and Matt Lauers and Joe Bidens of the world knew that women would automatically go to their training instead of freezing.
This is all very well, you might say, but are you sure that women are up for this sort of thing? Isn't Basic Training a guy sort of thing, that issues from the male honor culture and its street manifestation, the Culture of Insult? Can women get beyond their Culture of Complaint and actually do something about male aggression other than complain about it and #metoo about it?
That's a good question. Another thing that came out of my glider pilot experience, was that they found that whenever a woman glider pilot had a frightening experience in the air she was done with gliding. In other words, women tend to respond to a frightening event by never going near it again. Whereas the essence of the male honor culture is the courage to go back into the maelstrom to show that you are a member in good standing of the band of brothers.
I don't know the answer to that. But I do feel that either women decide it is their responsibility to look after themselves at the office or return to the protected status of the patriarchy.
And maybe it is too late, if the Women of the New York Times are to be believed.
OK, so maybe the Women of the New York Times just want Daddy to get their blankie. But when someone else has the job of making you safe, then you are their subject, their creature; you are not an independent woman.
That is a problem. Either women can take care of themselves in public places or... well, Sarah Hoyt thinks that corporations just won't want to hire women any more: too much trouble. Given that a man can now be fired just on the accusation of a woman, it means that no sensible man will want to be around women in the workplace.
[T]his will give companies pause before hiring women, which will lead to a lot of decent and qualified women being left unemployed.Oh dear. How come the feminazis never thought of that?
So I have a solution. Basic Training for Babes in the Workplace.
The problem of "freezing" at a frightening moment is not just a problem for women in the workplace. It is a problem for soldiers in wartime.
Yeah, that's right. Armies have a big problem with training their soldiers not to freeze when frightened out of their wits. So do airlines, when it comes to an emergency in the air.
So what do these outfits do? Perfectly simple. They train their employees to deal with emergencies, to follow orders when the skies are falling, and not just emergencies in general, but what to do, step-by-step, in specific emergencies.
I have experienced how that works in my own life. For several years I was a soaring pilot, flying gliders. The big problem in gliding is what to do if you don't find lift from a thermal and cannot get back to your home airfield. In that case, you have to "land out," probably in a farmer's field. So you get trained how to pick a suitable field, how high up you need to be to do a proper approach pattern, and above all, when to make the decision to land out. In my soaring days I found myself too low to return to base twice, and both times I followed my training and set myself up for a land-out in a suitable field. But both times, as I was flying the approach pattern to land, I found lift and was able to abort the approach and circle in a thermal and eventually return to my home base.
Despite all the fear and adrenaline I followed my training, and I can see why. When you have the option between: heading for home hoping against hope that you make it, and a procedure drilled into you by your training that has a safe result ending up in a suitable field, you go with the "safer" option.
In the aftermath of US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River after a bird strike that knocked out its engines, I got to read a few articles about airborne emergencies. The experts said that when there is an emergency in the air, flight crew do what they are trained to do.
Then there was Air France 447 that crashed after getting into clouds in the tropical convergence zone. Reading the reports on the accident I was amazed at the cluelessness of the flight crew. They clearly had not been properly trained to deal with a stall situation: so they panicked and flopped around and lost their lives, and the plane, and the passengers.
So, when it comes to women in the workplace we have two options. Either we place women in protected safe spaces, or we train them to deal with a variety of unwanted attentions.
If we decide to put women into safe spaces, then we are saying that the whole business of women's liberation was a failure, because women are just too frail and risk-averse to deal with threats against their person. Bring back the patriarchy.
So the only sensible alternative is Basic Training for the Workplace. I am not talking about martial arts and well-aimed kicks in the groin. I am talking about training women to respond automatically to the kind of aggression practiced by the Harvey Weinsteins and the Matt Lauers of the world. Oh, and the Joe Bidens of the world:
And frankly, it would be a good thing if women just automatically followed their training before worrying about creating a scene, as above or worse, thinking about whether there might be an angle to going with the flow and hoping for a quid pro quo for a bit of nookie.
Oh, and it would really help if the Harvey Weinsteins and Matt Lauers and Joe Bidens of the world knew that women would automatically go to their training instead of freezing.
This is all very well, you might say, but are you sure that women are up for this sort of thing? Isn't Basic Training a guy sort of thing, that issues from the male honor culture and its street manifestation, the Culture of Insult? Can women get beyond their Culture of Complaint and actually do something about male aggression other than complain about it and #metoo about it?
That's a good question. Another thing that came out of my glider pilot experience, was that they found that whenever a woman glider pilot had a frightening experience in the air she was done with gliding. In other words, women tend to respond to a frightening event by never going near it again. Whereas the essence of the male honor culture is the courage to go back into the maelstrom to show that you are a member in good standing of the band of brothers.
I don't know the answer to that. But I do feel that either women decide it is their responsibility to look after themselves at the office or return to the protected status of the patriarchy.
And maybe it is too late, if the Women of the New York Times are to be believed.
OK, so maybe the Women of the New York Times just want Daddy to get their blankie. But when someone else has the job of making you safe, then you are their subject, their creature; you are not an independent woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment