Women and children first

Is it only me...but why?

The recent tragedy of the sinking Italian cruise liner when it was alleged that ‘the women and children first’ rule was not followed, has set me thinking. We always know this is a dangerous thing for me to do but it has happened and so I thought I would share my wisdom with you. How lucky does that make you?

Now I accept that this might be the polite thing to do and certainly as a man of considerable charm, albeit kept well hidden, this is of course how I would behave should I ever be unlucky enough to find myself in such tragic circumstances.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that should my office space ever begin to incendiarize I will clarify any doubt that might exist in the minds of my co-workers and highlight that our door is clearly labelled fire exit and even hold open said fire exit until every woman and child has left the room.
However I do believe that such a policy might be illegal.

Under Equal Opportunities legislation so beloved of the feministas and other bleeding heart liberals, it has to be the best person for the job, irrespective of gender and age who would have to go first. On this basis, if you are going to get into a boat, especially if it requires rowing, I would like to suggest that the best people for the job and therefore those who should get in first would be those with any sailing or rowing ability. It goes without saying that if strength and stamina were required to ensure that the boat had the strength to make land, these are more likely to be male traits than female.

And I haven’t even mentioned navigation skills!

It should also be pointed out that the Guardianista-inspired Human Rights Act guarantees us all a right to life, to family life and to marriage. I do not recall anywhere that these rights were determined by gender though clearly you have more of these rights than anyone else if you are an illegal immigrant facing deportation. Therefore anyone denied a right to a lifeboat space on basis that they were not a woman or a child, would have a very good case at Strasbourg. Of course no one would be able to get off the boat until all the illegal immigrants had got off otherwise they would be heading to Strasbourg too.

Now it might only be me but this perfectly illustrates the legal and moral dilemmas that arise from simplistic statements such as ‘women and children first’. And so I would contend that it might be better and more legally sound if we adopted the maxim of ‘every person for him or herself’.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus