Big Friendly Vegan

It still exists. In a time when we are all meant to be non-sexist, there still exists a fundamental sexism that I am afraid will never go away. It has nothing to do with discrimination, rather the difference between men and women.

We had a tree planting at the school for National Tree Day - a very, very good idea in my humble opinion. The school did a good job getting all of the kids ready and involved and the parent volunteers helped the teachers get a few hundred plants in the ground. I was pleased to assist in this and lent my bulk to a lot of digging.

The sexism came after all of the main work was done when the organiser of the day (a volunteer parent) came up to me and asked if I could help in the removal of a large tree stump. The stump had been there for years with repeated "executive decisions" made to not remove it - purely because it was too hard for the gardening volunteers, all mums. In walks big male father type (i.e. me) and all of a sudden the executive decisions are reversed and the stump has to come out.

I felt used and violated. The only reason I was doing the job was because I was a man and it was men's work. How degrading!

Of course, I got the stump out with the help of my wife and a former student (and sister of a current student). I did the heavy hitting while they cleared away the dirt for me to get my mattock in. We broke a shovel (snapped the metal) and I almost had a heart attack straining against the damn thing, but it is out, and god help me, I felt good about it.