Random complaint: I have been handy about the house since I was a kid, and have been fixing up old houses since 1998. I used to work for a company that specialized in old house restoration, I used to co-own a company that specialized in vintage hardware, and have done work on at least a dozen old houses. I specialized in vintage plumbing, but I am also fluent with electrical, framing, and basic finish carpentry. I can lay tile, and have taught others to lay tile. I used to, naively, think that the reason people invariably talk to me like I have no idea what I'm doing was because I was young. As I got older I thought they were underestimating my age, and therefore my experience. Now that I'm all old and gray-haired, it's impossible to ignore that it's just my vagina that leads people to talk to me like I am clueless and helpless around home improvement.
I'm so, so fucking sick of it.
In general, I'm sick of being talked to like I'm incompetent just because I'm female.
In general, I'm fucking sick of people underestimating women just because we have tits and vaginas.
My own household is an egalitarian dream, but as soon as I interact with people outside of our little paradise, it's back to being talked to like I'm a retarded version of a man.
I am horrified that this is the world I'm sending my daughters out into; a world where, by virtue of their sex, they will be treated as nincompoops by default.
Fuck all of this bullshit.