Yesterday, I wrote about a female reader who accused me, along with the rest of the 4 billion males on this planet, of being sexist.
I did my best — it wasn’t much — to defend myself against the accusation.
But when you’ve been charged with a serious thought crime, what you really want is some good third-party witnesses to corroborate your own defense.
Fortunately, I got a few responses from women to my email yesterday. I won’t name names here — that’s against thought court protocol — but here’s what they wrote.
First, from a PhD scientist and business owner:
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Bwahahahaha I noticed all 5 were men and thought – oh my, some woman is gonna write in and whine about this…
Couldn’t see that one coming *cough*
Watcha gonna do?
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Second, from a fundraising copywriter for NGOs:
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I’m a woman and I almost lost an eyeball when rolling my eyes as I was reading allaboutme’s comment.
It’s the saddest, most annoying, most passe rebuke to resort to when you’ve got nothing else to throw at a man.
It’s plain lazy.
Thanks for the good work, John.
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Third, from an MD and science fiction author:
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Pretty impressed by the link at the end. I was a bit suspicious about the sexism, but it really helps that you clarify that everyone who entered the contest was a man. More chicks should step up, I guess! XD
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errr… yeah. About that. I actually also got one reply yesterday, which just said:
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Hey John,
Just read your email and I wanted to let know I am a woman (and from India).
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Uh-oh.
This reply came in a thread of one of the Most Valuable Email contest submissions I got last week — the contest that triggered this entire sexism affair.
Only men ended up as winners of the contest because — so I thought — only men ended up submitting any entries.
Except apparently not.
It turns out I did get at least one submission for the MVE contest from a woman. But I didn’t recognize her as such because of her Indian name/nickname. That means two things:
1) My defense in my sexism trial has suddenly been dealt a serious, possibly fatal blow, and…
2) I might now be charged with racism to boot, or at the very least, with involuntary cultural obtuseness.
My life just got a lot more complicated.
Clearly, my slapdash self-defense won’t be enough to handle this any more.
I’ll have to call in some serious help.
The help of a master communicator.
Someone who hasn’t lost a legal argument in over 40 years, while fighting in dozens of big criminal and civil cases.
Perhaps you know who I mean.
Perhaps you don’t.
If so, I’m willing to tell you. But be warned. This person is too male, too pale, and too stale.
Maybe he can still teach you something though.
If you’re interested: