Equality

I was on the train a few days ago and a women came into the cart I was in ,with her daughter and two grandchildren. A lady offered her a seat but the grandmother declined politely and then said “it’s always the women that offer their seat, where are all the men?!”

Now I love it when a man offers me their seat, mainly because I don’t have to worry about getting groped as much if I’m sitting down. I’m also always on my feet at work so it’s nice to sit down. However, we can’t preach equality and then demand men to give up their seat for us…why exactly do we need to sit down more than men do? Maybe if we’re pregnant….we got the swollen feet, another human inside us, and if it’s a bumpy ride we don’t want to be wobbling all over the place…that just isn’t safe. Or maybe we’re old and our legs just can’t hold up that long, but besides that a man deserves a seat on the train just as much as any woman.

Lately I’ve opted to just stand during my hour long commute. I’ll probably take a seat if there aren’t a lot of people in the train, or if I’m nearing my stop. And usually guys will hesitate, look around, make sure I’m not going for the seat, and then rush to sit down. These men look like they’re about to fall apart, and most pass out a stop after sitting down. Now if I’m perfectly comfortable standing up, why should I want/expect these men to offer their seat? Clearly they need it more than I do…

I understand why women expect that kind of treatment, having doors opened for them, having the bill paid for etc…it’s nice, society has been telling us that’s the way to go for years, and to be honest we’re just used to it. However, if we’re going to ask for equality we shouldn’t condemn those that don’t follow these…rules. We need to start seeing things in a different perspective. Ladies if we want to be seen as equal to men we need to start playing the part.