Humour airplanes and women

"Peter Duniho" wrote:
And mine, who finally had a chance to read it, did not. Quite the opposite,
in fact.

Peter, part of the reason gender jokes are funny is because there is a
least a bit of truth to them. Not all of us, men or women, fit gender
stereotypes completely, but it's silly to try and pretend those traits
don't exist and sad to not be able to see humor in some of them when
there clearly was no one being singled out and made fun of.

The idea that sexism in aviation doesn't exist is also burying one's
head in the sand. Two recent incidents come to mind:

One was a friend, nearing her private checkride. In a stage check with
an old-school, ex-military examiner that was not satisfied with some of
what he saw, he made the comment: "I think we have a 'blonde thing'
going on here."

Another friend was the only woman in an A&P course. The instructor
continually made snide remarks, even telling her before one procedure
not to cry because she was probably going to ruin her "painted nails".

Both of these women were offended, but neither were "scared away," and
both achieved their respective goals in spite of these attitudes.
Nevertheless, these are both examples of remarks and attitude that would
never be directed at any male student.

Bottom line is that these gender jokes are not specific to aviation, and
sexist attitudes such as the ones mentioned above aren't going to change
one way or the other because of them. People who *should* know better
and who get away with making these inappropriate, unprofessional remarks
that blatantly and intentionally offend women in aviation are
responsible for sexism in the industry, not these harmless gender jokes.