Man up

That's the watch word from Globe and Mail columnist, Margaret Wente, to young women who won't confront young men on public transit who take up two seats "man spreading", as she calls it.  Just one example, but yea, I know what she means.  Not that I take public transit -- in more than three years here I have yet to step onto a C-train -- but man-spreading is simply another form of discourteous conduct. 

Discourtesy is everywhere, but we don't need university courses about it.  Young women don't have to "victimize" themselves about it.  They simply have to "man up" and sit down.  "Give his leg a little nudge, if he doesn't respond," writes Wente.  She goes on:

"We need to stop monsterizing men.  We also need to stop encouraging women to believe they are as helpless as kittens with the vapours.  Women are not weaker vessels.  That is the fundamental premise of feminism, as I recall.  We've tried to raise our daughters to be strong and independent, confident and secure -- resilient, resourceful, tough-minded, able to deal with what the world throws at them  That is the road to equality."

Hear, hear.

"Where did we go wrong?  Instead of lionesses, we've turned our brave and fearless daughters into neurotic, quivering piles of jelly....utterly unable to cope with the garden-variety misdemeanours of boys and men who have been behaving badly since time began, despite our many efforts to civilize them?"

Wente says that universities -- hothouses for a grievance and rape culture that sees racism, sexism and misogyny under every rug -- are the problem.  In fact, many faculty derive their livelihoods from it by constructing increasingly-elaborate codes of conduct and large administrative apparatuses to detect and uproot these evils, says Wente.

Please.

Young women need to...."practice manning up.  Like it or not, the world beyond the cloistered halls of academia is teeming with guys who take up too much space and occasional act like total jerks.  Sooner or later you will have to learn to deal with them.  Fear not. You can."

As Nancy Reagan said about drugs, "Just say no".  Take a stand, young ladies.  Quit complaining.