Skip to main content

Toilets, Tradies, Snowflakes, and Bad Poetry.


As if my first attempt at this wasn’t enough of an eyesore, here’s some more erasure/blackout poetry, crafted using what has been described as, “well this comment section is a predicable trash fire”.



The article is titled Women tradies say their dealing with barriers including sexist comments, toilet access. So you can only imagine.

I’m not going to go on any rants with this one (what a surprise, right? Since when have I ever given up the opportunity for a good old rant on here?), mainly because it’s 3:26 am and I just want to get to the poetry part.

In short, the article is about a survey that found (wait for it) that there are numerous barriers women face working in the trades. These include having no designated toilets and experiencing sexual harassment, just to name a few. The comment section is predictably  divided into either:

1) mEn traDIes SufFER moRe!! We hAVe No ToiLeTs EitHEr aND can’T EVen mAke a Joke AnYmOrE!!!” 

And my personal favourite;

2) “IM A WOMAN TRADIE AND YES THERE ARE NO TOILETS AND YES THERE IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND NUDE CALENDARS BUT YOU JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT I LOVE MY JOB IT’S ALL PART OF IT YOU JUST NEED A THICK SKIN DONT BE SUCH A SNOWFLAKE IT’S THE INDUSTRY BOYS WILL BE BOYSSSS”

Okay, because I have zero self control, here I go. Obviously, everyone should have access to a toilet in their workplace and just because you’re able to survive without one doesn’t mean that this is good enough. Secondly, you shouldn’t have to “become one of the boys” and be down with the “banter”, aka sexual harassment, telling yourself that you don’t mind. This is a way of surviving within the patriarchy and it shouldn’t be that way, full stop. Just because you put up with it all for 25 years so that you could go to work each day without hating your coworkers, doesn’t mean that you should have to do that. Funnily enough, everyone is entitled to not be sexually harassed or intimidated at their workplace, and also to be able to use a toilet. Anything less than this incredibly low bar just isn’t good enough. Why is this even a debate?

Anyway, I know said I wasn’t going on a rant, but who actually believed me?

Before I get too ranty, let’s head to the juicy poetry where I have spent 95% of the time trying to block out the right words with my very uncoordinated thumb. Once again, it’s bad yet fun! I should probably be doing something more productive during the ungodly night hours, but here I am. And here you are reading it, so that makes you “just as sane as I am”, as our friend Luna (who I’m sure would be a feminist and very anti-sexual-harassment-in-workplaces) would say.




Happy night-morning, friends. I hope that you enjoy reading this “predictable trash fire” as much as I do.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A review of the types of people who sell animals on TradeMe.

I’m always on the hunt for new internet rabbit holes to venture down during all these long nights. Sometimes I’ll just read random articles or follow a Wikipedia chain or read up about conspiracy theories just for the fun of it. I’m not too sure how I got into investigating (okay, that’s way too strong a word for staring at a screen to stop my eyelids dropping) the animals for sale on TradeMe, but here we are. Upon reading several listings and gasping at the price of these creatures, I began to notice some particular themes within each subset of seller. And because I don’t have anything better to do during these ungodly hours, I’ve categorised these sellers into neat, little boxes. Healthy stuff. Let’s start with the pigs. Surprisingly, pig sellers tend to be of very few words. I was lowkey disappointed because I expected an almost rambunctious air about them, verging on mildly jolly. However, most listings just include one or two blurry photos of the pigs at least 5m away in a paddoc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Plumbers and Broats

Today has been a strange morning so far, involving plumbers, blue food colouring, and awkwardly pacing around inside my house. Is it just me who gets nervous and feels awkward when they have a tradie working in their house? It's probably just me. This would be a typical thing that makes me feel weird, but no one else would seem to have a problem with it. Now I'm just rambling. Another weird thing I do. We have a couple of plumbers working on the downstairs in our house as we're renovating the bathroom. The plumbers are very nice and normal and I've talked to them and showed them the work that needs to be done and it was fine. They aren't even in the main section of our house. My toddler and I are on a completely different floor, but with every little noise I think, "but what if they come up the stairs?" And I mean, what if they do? Therefore, in the possibility that they may come into the main section of our house (which again, is unlikely, given that all ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alone (with peas and Sard).

These past 12 hours I’ve had so much alone time, I feel quite strange and everything feels unfamiliar.  It has been wonderful! But also a bit weird. It’s really made me realise that before I had kids, I had So. Much. Time.  But that’s always the way it is, isn’t it? You don’t appreciate something until it’s gone. And then you have a new blessing in its place and all you can think is, “wow I’m so constantly busy” and “wow, I would love to use the bathroom alone,” and “wow, I can’t remember what silence sounds like.” You lose yourself a little bit in motherhood. You find new parts of yourself too, of course. You grow and stretch and rise so much that it hurts. But you’re also so constantly on 24/7 that you barely have enough time to think you’re own thoughts. Last night my daughter slept through the night! It was amazing! I feel so well rested today and I’m so thankful. I have no idea why or how or anything else and it probably won’t happen again for goodness knows how long, but...
Post a Comment
Read more