Like most safety-minded folks, I found myself agreeing with William Rauschning’s “Pedestrians: Please, let yourself be seen.”
Yes, pedestrians should avoid wearing all black. Wearing a bright-coloured scarf seems like sound advice. Then I stumbled upon the words “unlady-like lingo” and then the jaw-droppingly offensive “(Unfortunate byproduct of women’s equality).”
Wow, I didn’t realize women have achieved equality. How can this be when just this week Victoria Kaspi becomes the first woman to win Canada’s top science prize? Not to mention the study from California Polytechnic University and North Carolina State University that suggests women may be more competent at writing computer code, but their ideas are rejected more often when gender is clear. No need to even mention the wage gap.
Imagine if Mr. Rauschning had nearly run over a man dressed in black. Would he have described the man’s language as “ungentlemanly-like” and an “unfortunate byproduct of men’s equality?” Let’s leave the sexism out of what is good advice. Any pedestrian, regardless of gender, is hard to see when dressed in black. And rude language is rude language.
Sarah King
Oak Bay