DO YOU TALK TO YOUR OWN MOTHER WITH THAT MOUTH ?

All those years of hard work have paid off, giving up her days and nights studying everything she needed to know to get to the top of her chosen profession have been worth it and now here she is fulfilling her dream as a pitch side medic at one of the country’s biggest football clubs.

She’s there to see to any accidents and emergencies that might befall these highly paid sportsmen and she’ll deal with them quickly and efficiently ensuring they get the best treatment should they fall victim to any injury.

She should command the utmost respect from any supporter for being there and ready to spring into action to the best of her ability.

However  unfortunately from the moment she appears by the side of the pitch she is subject to comments not about how well she does her job but taunting her about her body and appearance .

For while through sheer hard graft and a determination to succeed in her career have got her to where she is today, a small minority will not be able to see beyond their own blinkered views that because she is of a different gender to them that she’s just there for their enjoyment which gives them the right to shout obscenities about various parts of her like she’s nothing more than a chart on gynaecological anatomy.

But she should expect that sort of thing if she’s going to work in a male dominated environment they will say, professing that “after all, it’s only banter isn’t it “but if, pardon the football pun, the boot were on the other foot and they were subjected to all that abuse, would they dismiss it all as a bit of fun quite so quickly?

Having been many times on the receiving end of a braying squad of “ men “ shouting the delightful rhyme that refers to getting ones best assets out for the assorted male clientele and on one particular occasion it ruining a birthday night out when it reduced me to tears  , i can vouch for just how intimidating that can be and i wonder if they would be quite so keen to pass it off as just  laugh a minute jollity if they had their night out ruined by a large group of women bellowing loudly on a loop all evening for them to kindly let them peruse their meat and two veg before passing muster on whether it measures up to their expectations .

Not to mention having their sexuality questioned just because they don’t appear to want to fall madly in love with the charmer who has just humiliated or violated them.

So in international women’s month and in a week where one of the Delhi gang rape accused’s comments proved that while dapper laughs is supposed to be just a character there are still people in the world who think like that about women i ask the gentlemen of the world to consider this .

Would you speak to your own wife / sister/daughter / mother like that?

And if the answer is no, then i suggest you think first before you open your mouth and let the banter flow because every woman deserves some respect, no matter who she is to you .

MEDWAY MESSENGER -GIRL FROM THE NECK DOWN -16/03/15