*

Sunday, March 20, 2011

"Grab your wife and kids and go..."

MIND THE LINE, IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE

Blue lines on roads in Island Bay mark the furthest point that a worst-case tsunami has been calculated to reach.

Since the lines were painted in February, after consultation with GNS Science, almost every coastal suburb has expressed an interest in having them.

"If there was a big earthquake in Wellington, and you live on the coast and have seen that line on the street, then hopefully you grab your wife and kids and go to behind where that line is," Wellington emergency management office senior adviser Dan Neely said.

Such are the warnings given by the local council wallah about imminent tsunami.

It shows which people are regarded as being the norm, the average, the ones from whom all others are different.

But Deb over at THM has her knickers severely twisted over the inference in the language used.

My reply:
You people really need to get over yourselves instead of looking for conspiracies in every utterance.

The writer is probably a happily married man whose 'norm' is caring for his wife and nuclear family. And his worldview should be the gold standard, apparently being married is better for your health.

Find something real to do rather than stirring the pot over abstractions.

Being married for almost three life sentences, personally I do not see any thing wrong with 'using language that reinforces notions of men as normative, and women as others who need to be cared for', for it is also my strongly held worldview.

What do you think of the matter?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think she has enough to do if she has time to fret over nothing!

Cadwallader

Ray said...

Your respnse is no improvement
There living arrangements that differ from the one you and I enjoy