Archive for December, 2007
Monday, December 24th, 2007
Happy Holidays…and I don’t mean holy days
I hope everyone enjoys whatever they celebrate. I celebrate a time for celebration. This is the only time of year that you have an excuse to see people run up their energy bill and waste precious energy for the mere joy of trying to see if Jesus will come back to enjoy the party everyone throws for his birth. I must say it is quite a party. I think Jesus is the biggest celebrity of them all. Second comes Brittany Spear’s sister and that is probably just because she is taking “responsibility” at sixteen fucking years old and keeping some cells that will eventually form a human. Funny how all that works out.
In the mist of all that, Happy Holidays everyone and be safe.
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Partner vs. Girlfriend
Words are so interesting. They take several forms to every single person. If someone says the word “tree”, I might picture something completely different than someone else and that in itself makes a meaning.
Let’s discuss the word partner. It is a word that is gender-neutral in saying boyfriend or girlfriend. Such as the phrase significant other.
My Partner or also my girlfriend was talking to a woman about the Vagina Monologues. My partner was discussing that I was interested in getting involved. My partner described me as her “girlfriend” but the person thought she meant a friend that is a girl but if she would have said partner then they would have understood.
If you try to be gender-neutral and say Partner people automatically think you are in a same sex relationship but if you say Girlfriend then you mean a friend. What is wrong with the world and who calls there friends girlfriends?
Answer: Lots of people.
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Sexual Harassment “Training”
Yesterday I completed a web-training assessment on sexual harassment. It was a well done training compared to some of the ones I have heard about in other companies and universities.
One of the first problems with the training that caught my eye was the fact that the person being harassed is instructed to confront the person who is making them feel “uncomfortable”. They also said that this should be done in private. Again, let’s think about this statement. If someone is making you feel uncomfortable, confronting them and telling them to stop is not such an easy task. Basically, if someone doesn’t tell the person or persons to stop, then they cannot claim sexual harassment because they have not made it clear that they are uncomfortable. In my opinion this policy is hurting people who are being sexually harassed but are afraid to speak up. Speaking from experience, confronting someone (who in most cases in a job setting is your superior) is easier said than done.