Deborah Ross: 'Some days I wake up laughing at men, go to bed laughing at men, and as for the hours in between...'
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Your support makes all the difference.If you ask me, the announcement from BBC Radio that it plans to launch a Man's Hour as a counter-point to Woman's Hour is excellent news, as why shouldn't men have their own forum to discuss their thoughts, feelings and the bathroom cabinet from Ikea they assembled upside down and which, all these years later, will still only open from the top? It's not as if they can discuss such important issues with their womenfolk in a supportive atmosphere at home because, in my experience, women just fall about laughing, in the most unsupportive manner, and will then say to each other: "If you don't believe me, go up into the bathroom and try opening the cabinet from the bottom. I know! How dumb do you have to be? Amazing!"
Apparently, men today feel they are not being taken seriously in the way women felt they weren't being taken seriously when Woman's Hour was founded 50 years ago, and if some reverse sexism is afoot, then we must all fight it, although not today, as I've got a lot of laughing at men to do. In fact, some days I wake up laughing at men, go to bed laughing at men, and as for the hours in between, I fill them mostly with laughing at men. (I would feel ashamed, but where would I find the time?)
On occasion, my husband will pull me up on this. "Why are you laughing?" he will ask. "Well, since you ask," I will say, "I'm laughing about that time you put that blind up, and were so proud of it, but come morning it had fallen off. I'm sorry, love, but it kills me every time."
He will look crestfallen, and so I will feel bad, like the worst kind of reverse sexist, but then I'll remember the time he put Nescafé in the cafetière and couldn't work out where the grounds had gone, and that always cheers me up. (How dumb do you have to be?) So it's good, I think, for them to have their own programme which, I've heard, will include regular slots like "Things I Daren't Ask My Doctor", "Doctor, why do my blinds fall off?" and "The Question No One is Asking": "Who even says bathroom cabinets have to open from the bottom? Show me, where is it written in law?" I might even tune in myself. It'll be funny.
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