Originally Posted by JustJo
Just reading this thread, and not sure exactly what I think yet...but this sentence stuck in my head.
When my son was in elementary school, we attended a school carnival...complete with games, bouncie houses and a gigantic inflatable slide about 2 stories tall.
There were hundreds of kids and their parents, all roaming around the play fields, eating, drinking, talking, playing.
Suddenly, there was the sound of many children all screaming.
Evidently, the inflatable slide was poorly designed...with a stairway going up only one side. The people managing the slide had evidently not staked it down properly, and had also allowed children to fill the stairway rather than go up a few at a time.
I, and a few hundred parents, all looked up at the same time...to see the 2 story slide rolling over slowly...with the children ready to be pinned underneath.
Without an alarm, a sound, or anyone organizing anything...we all simply reacted...limbic brain...no training...just instinct.
About 10% of the adults froze in place. The other 90% dropped whatever was in their hands - food, drinks, purses - and ran towards the tipping slide.
Without exception, every male bodied person ran to the slide, braced themselves, lifted their arms and held the slide up off the children.
Without exception, every female bodied person ran underneath the mens' arms, and started grabbing children, pulling them away from the slide, setting them down just past the mens' legs and saying "Run!"
By the time the children were all safe, and the slide started to roll back into an upright position, there was a fair amount of laughter....when we all realized that every woman had planted her ass against the crotch of the man behind her to brace herself in a crouch....the only way to reach the kids.
I'm an independent, tough woman who has always supported herself...and I always felt like gender roles were taught. But ever since that day....I've wondered.
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