That's equal!

We had an annual day of equality last week in Finland. The day was also Minna Canth's day [prounounced like 'cunt', nomen est omen, LOL, ...not!]. She was a strong person in the 19th century when it comes to female rights. As this is indicating, it's women's equality in question. Not a man's.

Yes, I have blogged about this before, but now I have new goodies in the pipeline. As this recession has progressed, it was reported that 30000 men were sacked alone in January in Finland. And only 3000 women. What do you say about that? Not that equal to me. Women protest here all the time that men get better salary and better positions. What about now? It's quiet like in a climate-change activist camp (-16 degrees this morning by the way).

Another ongoing topic in equality has been profession naming convention. Women don't like to be called men. Fireman should be firewoman or a fireperson. There was a talk about "herr gårman" in Sweden some time ago. It meant the walking man in a traffic sign near zebra crossings (suojatien merkki). It included an educational wordplay in it: "här går man", i.e. "here one should walk" or something. "man" is a passive subject, like 'one' in English, which means unluckily also "a man" - not "man" (if you don't know the difference between 'man' and 'a man', ask Neil Armstrong, LOL!) in Swedish.

That wordplay was just a foreplay to the following. What about "gärningsman" - a criminal with an innuendo to male gender? I see that word almost every time I read Swedish papers. Even on the radio, even in Finland! Some consistency, please!

The same kind of incident happened some years ago in the city of Nokia. "Hämärämies" is basically a direct translation of "gärningsman". It means a criminal with that now infamous "mies/man/a man" ending. I saw a note in a carpet weaving house in Nokia saying: "Pitäkää ovi kiinni hämärämiesten takia!" (Please keep the door closed because of male criminals!) I was offended deeply. What would a man steal from a house full of rag rugs? What would a man do there in the first place? Don't ask what I was doing there, LOL! Weaving carpets...not! I was there just getting pissed off, reading irritating criminal warning signs. Hell, I should have left the door open... for female criminals - that wasn't forbidden. Actually, I was waiting for my wife to finish her rug (no puns included). That's one of the places I don't recommend for any male - criminal or not!