Apparently Fish Sometimes Do Need Bicycles

       The Daily Mail ran an op-ed today entitled: "Why have men stopped offering pregnant women a seat? NATASHA PEARLMAN Reveals the challenges of the past eight months of her pregnancy." Her complaint is that men are no longer as willing to offer a subway seat to a pregnant woman. She is, however, able to answer her question:

(Source)

One of the benefits women have accomplished through feminism is the ability to be treated equally, despite the fact that we’re growing a human inside of us. I hate the idea my physical ‘condition’ could ever be perceived as a hindrance.

So she got equality but is now upset about it.

        The reason is that Mother Nature really doesn't care about things like equality and feminism, as the author discovered despite her best efforts:

However, much as I would like to deny it, there does come a stage at which biology intervenes — and other people’s common courtesy should kick in. While my brain is functioning just as well as it did pre-pregnancy, thank you very much, there are some realities I can’t ignore.

While the brain may still function, there are a lot of hormones and other issues, which can make women (or any pregnant mammal for that matter) emotional and unreasonable. There is a reason the word "bitch" has taken on its various colloquial meanings, and it isn't because pregnant dogs make good company.

        In any event, the fundamental problem with the author's attitude is that what she terms "common courtesy" is not that common. It is primarily limited to the Christian West and its attitude that women are deserving of special protection and consideration because they are the weaker sex. The purpose of feminism was to destroy this attitude and belief.

      In addition, as another feminist, Kate Mulvey, has noted, feminists have "have learnt to see men not as protectors but competitors." And I suspect that many secular men have also learned to see women not as someone to be protected but also as competitors.

      So when she later posits "Is this the flipside of equality? That people — especially men —have lost sight of what it is to be thoughtful or considerate?", I would have to answer "yes". Welcome to the real world.

Related Posts: "Hypergamy and Delayed Marriage Among Women"; "Female Privilege and the Arc of Western Civilization".