The re-invented male －再発明されたオス－

When I woke up this morning and flicked through the BBC News web-site, as I often do, I came across an article with this headline:

“Female tech company founders invent male to beat sexism”

I spent a while trying to work out what the headline could possibly mean.  Had the women invented some sort of robot superhero which would battle sexism?  Would it search the world, looking for sexist males?  When it found some, would it beat them up?

I opened the article.  It was actually about two women who had started a tech company in America.  They didn’t “invent” a male, like you invent a new technology.  They had created a fictional male character.  They did this to gain more respect from other businesses.  According to the two women, other businesses responded more quickly and with more respect when they began signing their emails with a male name.  When they used their own, clearly female names, the tone of the response was different.

I wonder though if treating someone differently always means treating them worse.  For example, the women complained that when they talked via email using their real names a man called them “girls” in his response.  In other words, he was less formal in his answer than the women wanted him to be.  Perhaps in his own mind he was just being friendly. 

For a modern, re-invented man, relations with women can be very confusing.  We are told we have to treat women exactly the same as we treat men.  But common sense and experience tell us that if we follow this rule strictly, we will never get a girlfriend.

I have just reread the BBC article.  They have changed the confusing headline.  Too many males must have been panicking, like me.

Vocabulary:

to flick through – of a book, web-site etc., to search at speed or skim read

to come across – to find or encounter by chance

a headline – usually of a news article, the title or first line, designed to draw one’s attention

a founder – someone who establishes or begins an organisation, company etc.

to work something out – to find the answer to something; to solve

to beat someone up – to physically attack someone and badly hurt them