No, I didn't get the job

A number of years ago, I applied for the job of communications director at the 'Canadian Council on the Status of Women'.  Without even reading the rest of this, you will surmise I was not hired.  My crime?  In the interview, I promoted and advocated for all women -- not just entitled university graduates and smarty-pants "feminists".  That was the nail in my coffin.

"I think the office should advocate for all women, like the single mother working the late shift at Walmart, or the drug addict on the street, or the downtrodden immigrant from a country that denigrates and 'honour' kills women," I suggested.  The entitled women around the interview table were clearly horrified! 

A little background on my history as a "feminist":  Our late-sixties cohort got tired of being screwed around because we were pregnant.  We got tired of getting six months' unemployment insurance.  We got tired of losing our jobs to someone else, only to return and find that lesser-qualified person sitting in our offices doing our jobs.  We got tired of having to start all over again when we returned from so-called "maternity leave".  Frankly, we got tired of being penalized for having the biological function of bearing children.  

So we went to the barricades.  

Thanks to our efforts, women and men now get full-paid maternity/paternity leave for a year and they get their jobs back.  It was these same women who were interviewing me and they could not relate.  I subsequently learned the woman who beat me for the job happened to be my next-door neighbour.  She was impeccably "liberated", perfectly-groomed, smartly-dressed, had several fancy degrees, a "feminist" husband and was unbridled by the messy and annoying task of raising kids.  She was perfect.

I must tell you that at that time, I was between husbands and living in a lovely house with my "wife", Frances the Wonder Nanny.  That meant that in effect, I didn't have kids and was wholely able to do the job -- just as any man with a real wife at home.  But that was not good enough; as I said, I didn't get the job.  

Sorry, I forget why I am telling you all this?  Oh yeah, because when a female acquaintance asks me to send her the link to my blog, I will hesitate.  I hesitate because I know some won't like it.  This was the case with a past-president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.  I was acquainted with her because B was a colleague of her husband and we were thrown together at various functions and get togethers.  In other words, she was not a woman I would ever have purposely sought out.  But when we got together, I shut my mouth while she espoused and waxed lyrically and didactically on the superiority of women, the downtrodden plight of so many (not in her highly-paid case, by the way) and collected a fat cheque with nary a thought to the hardships of the night cashier at Walmart.

We actually used to chat regularly.  Until she asked me to send her the link to my blog.  Haven't heard from her since.  That told me I was on the right track.  You know, I think without kids, you really can't be an authentic, working "feminist".  She had no kids so telling women which end was up was unauthentic.  On the other hand, don't get me wrong.  That doesn't mean I approve of women who get expensive educations, marry, have kids and then sit on their ass-s, join Mums' Clubs, yap at Book Clubs, drink wine and stay home with the kids while being supported by husbands.  I also don't approve of wives who are camp followers and pad around and traipse around the world after their husbands because they don't earn their own money and can't support themselves.  When I first started dating, my mother used to give me "mad" money -- money I could use to get home if I felt I had to.  Women always need their own money and that few dollars was how she taught me to be independent.  If you don't have a job, get one, please.  Your camp-follower behaviour is not why we went to the barricades.  

Now and then an unsuspecting, mature female swim buddy will ask for my blog.  I sent the link to one the other day and I am sure she will be flabbergasted when she reads who I really am; not just a doting grannie.  Will she shun me?  Time will tell.  That will be the test of what she's all about.  As I have said, I don't reveal myself unnecessarily to the vulnerable.