Ruth Ann

A Word on Equality
At a party, three guys were giving one member of their group a hard time for disliking the taste of beer.  Typical college trend to make fun of the guy who chooses to consume fruity drinks.  The argument that drinking alcohol that actually tastes good is perfectly acceptable regardless of how “fruity” the drink is–that is for another time.  This quickly turned into a bit of a women’s issue instead.

I piped into their conversation in support of the heckled, telling him I supported his drink choices–for which he thanked me. One of his friends chimed in with, “Yeah, but your peers don’t support it!”

Excuse me?

I yelled out, “Your peers? Are we not peers?”

The boys chose to ignore me.  Instead, the girl next to me turned to me and said, “It’s because we’re women.”

Well, of course.  I am apparently not an equal at the drunken round table because of my gender.

Albeit a simple party quip, likely spewed by a man who was a few too many beers for the worse, it is this kind of simple comment that gives way to a much deeper problem–the problem that the fact that I have different body parts means that I have different rights, that my say is less important–or not important at all.  The fact that this guy chooses to drink beverages that are stereotypically the first choice of women makes him less of a man in their eyes.  One may be ...