When my trusty Schwinn bicycle crapped out after 30 years of faithful service, I decided to adopt my husband\u2019s idle bicycle instead of buying a second one.\u00a0 How I miss the girl\u2019s \u201cstep through\u201d design that let me straddle the frame with both feet on the ground.\u00a0 All my stops and starts were effortless.\u00a0 Now I must fling my leg over the horizontal bar of the men\u2019s \u201cdiamond frame.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0It is a risky maneuver.\u00a0 Once one of my sandals went airborne as I swooped my leg up and over, and another time my pant leg got caught on the seat producing a dramatic tumble that brought traffic to a halt. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Why are there two different styles of bicycles?\u00a0 Why should I have to buy a second bicycle just for me?\u00a0 Why can\u2019t my husband and I share?\u00a0 It seems that gender-specific designs are an artefact from the 1880s when bicycles first became popular.\u00a0 The long skirts of women made the leg swing impractical and probably scandalous.\u00a0 It is unclear why all bikes didn\u2019t start with the practical step-through design, but now we are faced with changing a 100-year precedent.\u00a0 Not an easy task.\u00a0 The local bike store owner told me that few men will consider a \u201cgirl\u2019s bike,\u201d except for his older customers who have lost confidence in their leg swing and with it any macho pretensions. \u00a0This is the same demographic that is considering an adult tricycle so they have bigger problems than a gender-neutral two-wheeler.\u00a0 From an inventory standpoint, the store owner would appreciate a single frame style.\u00a0 My suggestion was to stop giving bikes a gender identity and just refer to bicycle frames as either \u201cstep through\u201d or \u201cdiamond,\u201d pointing out the anatomic advantages of the step through.\u00a0 At least it\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Public Bathrooms<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, the gender identity of bathrooms has become the ridiculous surrogate issue for transgender discrimination, but I have railed against this situation for years, particularly when there is a line for the women\u2019s bathroom but not the men\u2019s.\u00a0 In the Stockholm airport, I entered what I thought was the women\u2019s room to find a man washing his hands at a trough sink.\u00a0 As I backed out, he informed me that this was a common restroom and I happily skipped into an open stall.\u00a0 The major barrier to the shared bathroom is the men\u2019s urinal.\u00a0 If we could get rid of that spectacle and create stalls for everyone there should be no need to have gender specific restrooms.\u00a0\u00a0 I could even position this as a men\u2019s rights issue.\u00a0 Men should have the same level of bathroom privacy \u2013 for both liquid and solid \u2013 as women.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Third Person Pronoun<\/strong><\/p>\n The third person pronouns, i.e. he\/she, are obviously gender-specific, a problem that is most acutely felt by writers when they don\u2019t know gender of the person they are referring to.\u00a0 Consider this sentence.<\/p>\n \u201cMy daughter will be assigned a soccer coach today.\u00a0 I hope that ?he\/she? will give her equal playing time.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Believe me, this happens more often than you would think, requiring creative work-arounds.\u00a0 The most common is to revert to the plural, i.e. they\/them, which is blissfully gender neutral.<\/p>\n \u201cMy daughter will be assigned a soccer coach today.\u00a0 I hope <\/em>they will give her equal playing time.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is of course grammatically incorrect, and the sticklers at the SAT or ACT test will rip you a new one if this is your favored work-around.\u00a0 Other options involve arbitrarily picking a gender, or even alternating male and female in a show of gender equality, solutions that are simultaneously contrived, awkward and confusing.<\/p>\n Those who embrace the sexual spectrum have moved far beyond the pedestrian concerns of grammar.\u00a0 They favor a neutral pronoun to solve the limitations of the gender binary.\u00a0 Most recently, the transgender community has introduced \u201cze\u201d (pronounced zee), creating the trio of he\/she\/ze.\u00a0 The student handbook at Grinnell College has embraced this approach.\u00a0 In addition, the scenarios describing sexual misconduct always use gender neutral names, such as Chris, Pat, Alex, Terry, so it is impossible to tell who is doing what to whom.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter – it\u2019s all wrong.<\/p>\n 4. Miss\/Mrs.\/Ms\/Mr.<\/strong><\/p>\n The introduction of \u201cMs\u201d in the 1970s addressed the demeaning distinction between married and unmarried women.\u00a0 However, the quartet still retains the binary gender structure.\u00a0 Why not get rid of the salutations entirely and refer to everyone by their first name?\u00a0 That has certainly been my approach; I always insist that the younger generation use my first name.\u00a0 The older generation is more problematic for me since I am still subject to the ingrained training that Mr.\/Mrs. is a sign of respect.\u00a0 However, the sad truth is that this concern is rapidly becoming irrelevant as I morph into the senior generation myself.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Household Chores<\/strong><\/p>\n In the gender neutralization of household chores, women must be careful not to off-load only the unpleasant chores while refusing delivery of traditionally male chores.\u00a0 In our household, doing the laundry and emptying the dishwasher have become gender-neutral.\u00a0 Nick and I cook in parallel at dinner, each making our own distinct meal – we rarely eat the same thing. \u00a0I have retained the female-dominated chores of changing the sheets, making beds, folding the laundry, setting the table, and tidying up before guests \u2013 all easy duty done on my own schedule. Plus, Nick does not appreciate that the made bed is a motivating reminder that every day is a fresh start, and he just can\u2019t seem to remember the format of a set table \u2013 the fork goes on the napkin on the left, the knife, blade facing out, goes on the right and then the flanking spoon.<\/p>\n However, I am thrilled to say that I have off-loaded the grinding chore of grocery shopping to Nick.\u00a0 What have I acquired in exchange?\u00a0 Well nothing really.\u00a0 He is still responsible for taking out the garbage, manning the barbecue, and paying the bills.\u00a0 I can contrive excuses for this wondrously lopsided deal.\u00a0 He must take his dogs out in the morning anyway, so he might as well take out the garbage, I don\u2019t eat much meat (although I cannot resist his barbecued ribs), and if I paid the bills we would be in danger of having the lights turned off (which did indeed happen in my single days).\u00a0 Yes, a very convenient and self-serving form of feminism.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: My goal here is not to attempt a feminist screed, so I have focused this list on gender-specific standards that have largely gone unnoticed. \u00a0Right-handed scissors are a good analogy.\u00a0 My left-handed mother always winced in agony whenever she used … Continue reading ![\"womans-bike\"](\"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Womans-bike.jpeg\")
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