Gendered Skills Don’t Exist

So you have a set of tools, right? They're dangerous unless they are handled properly, and if they're not handled properly, the risk of hospitalisation increases with the less you know about handling them. Many, many people have put themselves and others into hospital with stupid damn stunts with those tools. Many many people have been hurt with these things.

Quick question for you, assuming you have not read the damn title: Which gender should be operating these tools?

If you know me by now, the answer should be 'both'. If you answered either 'male' or 'female' then you're wrong. _So_ wrong. The only tool you need genitals to operate is not the sort of tool that leaves the bedroom.

However, there's too many fools out there who think that your junk decrees which tools you excel at using. Nothing can be further from the truth. You can successfully use both the tools you would store in the kitchen cupboards and the tools you would store in the garden shed.

Amazing, isn't it?

Yet, if you're given a pink blanket as a baby, you're expected to stay with the tools in the kitchen, and the blue blanket set are destined to use the tools in the shed.

Horseshit, the lot of it.

There's like this cultural expectation at work here. Ladies are taught to be scared of "big boy toys" [eugh] whilst the gentlemen fear catching "the gay" off of anything related to cookery skills.

...pardon me whilst I barf.

It's ridiculous, of course. Just as ridiculous as cooking being "woman's work" whilst men who cook get applauded when they pursue cooking as a career. The hypocrisy stinks so bad it's a level infinity hazmat zone, folks.

Listen, I could go on all day about gender inequality and double standards... let's just defeat this one and move on.

There is absolutely nothing special about tools. Okay?

Yes, you need some level of training and understanding to operate them. Yes, they make noise. Yes, there is safety gear involved. This is true for all tools. And yes, there are a limited number of them that require a bit more muscle than ordinary to operate. That number becomes increasingly more limited the less you insist that girls don't do shit so that they can have 'beautiful' skinny weak noodle arms.

Let's blow up that horseshit and call it freckles, m'kay?

Let girls be strong. Let boys cry. Let ladies learn how to safely operate the garden shed tools and let the gents learn how to safely operate the mixmaster or the sewing machine. Why?

Because then they're not entirely dependent on the person who knows that shit. They're not stuck without help. They're not helpless if the person with the knowledge decides to use their power in a negative way. Because it's useful to have skills. Because the sooner we destroy the idea of 'girls tools' and 'boys tools', the sooner we can destroy the other gender roles,

It's not hard, to be honest. It's just a determination to learn. We're all humans. Learning is what we're all good at.

So yeah. I taught my son how to cook and my daughter how to use power tools. I taught both of them all the things. Knowing how to do stuff is useful. I know I don't want my kids to be helpless.

If you don't agree with me - why do you think your kids should be helpless?