I am human, godammit

Let me tell you, internets, today was a fun day to be in Physical Anthropology. The men in my class just keep coming out with these bewildering statements that display an astounding ignorance towards female humans and their magical, mystical ways. Today I got 3 gems from 3 different dudes, informing me that this is going to be one hell of a term.

We began the class by talking about how it is impossible to absolutely groups of humans by race because race is actually on a continuum, rather than being divided into nice little categories. To illustrate this in simple terms, the prof used the example of natural hair colour, and how it is better measured on a scale going from white blonde to black. A hand shot up in the back of the room, and this is what emits from the mouth belonging to that hand: “Isn’t it true that women are predisposed to be blonde, like, biologically to attract males in the wild?”

Ah yes, we’ve all heard about those feral blondes, stalking the countryside, using their brightly coloured hair as bait to capture unsuspecting males of the species. WTF?

Later on, we were talking about osteology, which, I’ve gotta say, I’m a big nerd and really looking forward to. The prof was asking the class to name information one could infer from human skeletal remains, and a guy stuck up his hand and replied sex. When questioned on how one could differentiate the sexes, he said, no lies, “Women have different bones than men. Like, more ribs and stuff.”

That’s right, even now in the fucking 2000’s, men who get into universities are still dumb enough to believe that women are strange, mythical alien beasts with 2 heads, 3 hearts and 25 ribs.

Luckily, another genius jumped right in there to correct him: “No, no, women have differently shaped pelvises!”

Now, this guy is right, in a sense. Women generally have a pelvis that is wide enough and set at the right angle so that they are able to bear and give birth to offspring. Men’s pelvises are narrower and not angled in the same way. But that isn’t how he said it, he didn’t say “Men and women have differently shaped pelvises.” What he said, the basic statement behind it, is at the basis of the sexist patriarchal society we live in-

Women are different.

There is a basic standard for being an average human, and that is male. Women are, then, not normal, not really human, but rather some kind of deviation or perversion of the norm. Men are the default, we are a second thought. How is it that 51% of the earth’s population can be considered “abnormal”?

Fuck the patriarchy.