There is so much competition between men and women, it’s been going on since time immemorial and I can’t see things changing any time soon. Yesterday I was helping Impact pack up some bags for ladies who’ve had to flee abusive partners, the bags could contain anything lovely but definitely have chocolate, and I was helping clean up at the end…people have this habit of telling me not to pick up a box because they feel it’s heavy (they weren’t but that’s not the point). Part of this is because women are viewed as the weaker sex and therefore not able to pick up heavy stuff, I get very irate with this point and every time someone told me ‘it’s heavy’ I’d put it on my shoulder and walk off. Each of these boxes weighed less than the 15kg boxes of Ginger Ale I move frequently so putting them on my shoulder was absolutely not a problem. The first person to tell me this was a man followed by the females who should realise this notion is outdated and comes from men but haven’t quite thought that through yet.

I’ve spoken about this before, about how books should be for people rather than divided by gender. Now Jonathan Emmett is complaining about the books being chosen by women. This is entirely likely as it seems more women buy presents than men, some men are totally hopeless at this task but then again so are some women. I think he’s being rather unrealistic, most women take great pains to buy books, toys and presents in general to match the person and their interests rather than buying things they’d like to have. I see this article as sour grapes and more competition between men and women.

Do you have any thoughts on this?