The Drywall Man Leaveth

So the the drywall man has completed his work on the hole in my bathroom wall and it's looks really good. In fact, that section of the wall now looks better than it did before it was busted out by the overzeaous plumber sent to my house by the American Home Shield Company who is refusing to take responsibility for the fact that they authorized unnecessary destruction of my property. They are continuing to refuse to take responsibiity by not paying for someone to come reinstall my new sink. I'm probably going to end up installing it myself because I'm starting to think I can do a better job than most of these people anyway, but it's all really about the principle of the matter. However, despite all that, I really have to put in another word on how nice drywall man was. Yesterday morning, he actually came out and helped me clean the snow and ice off my car as I was getting ready to leave. There aren't many people who would do that sort of thing and I am a firm believer in publicizing deceny, just to remind all of you that it shouldn't be unexpected in the first place. In fact, as he was helping me clean off my car, I couldn't help but think that he is the sort of person one used to refer to as a gentleman.

Which makes me wonder what happened to all the gentlemen? Why don't men strive to be gentlemen any longer. I actually think this is a result of all the confusion surrounding gender roles. When I was younger, I used to consider myself a feminist, but I don't anymore because I think the primary tenets of feminism promote just as exclusionary a philosophy towards men as they complain of being promoted against women. I think wanting to be treated just like men isn't a good thing because, quite frankly my dear, I've got higher standards than that. Yuk, yuk, yuk. But seriously, in order to elevate one's own worth, I don't think you need to trivialize another's. I don't appreciate that women choosing to take on more traditional roles are somehow seen as lacking ambition in today's culture. And when one looks at the statistics on the number of males and females attending and completeing college--which shows women are now attending college at higher rates than men--I don't think we're really improving society. In focusing on improving the woman's lot, I think a large portion of society has forgotten that the goal should really be to make sure everyone can look to their futures with the same level of enthusiasum and hope.

Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying, I am not saying that the women's movement was unnecessary or wrong. Obviously, women were not given the same level of access to life choices that men had. But the way it's worked out doesn't seem to present a more egalitarian way of life for both sexes, if you ask me. I read an article once on racism that states one of the biggest tricks that's being played upon the American psyche today is the notion that there is no longer a race problem. I don't completely agree with that. I think there are still problems, but I don't think they're nearly as bad as a lot of people like to make it seem. And I pretty much think the same thing with sexism. There's definitely still work to be done, but I don't think it's nearly as bleak as some play it off to be.