Feminism in the Lower North Shore

The Leisure Centre where my daughter has swimming lessons* sent me an invitation to celebrate this, the 100th International Women's Day. Women are asked to:

Nurture your inner beauty and revitalise your body and mind for International Women's Day with fitness classes, health assessments, tours of the centre, posture analysis, nutrition advice and drop in massages, all free.

The invitation includes the logos of the local council and the NSW Government's Office for Women's Policy so someone has decided this is a good idea.

Now aside from these classes being scheduled from 9:30 till 1:30 and so completely irrelevant to me and other women working that day, I'm not really sure our feminist trailblazers ever envisaged IWD being spent learning how to Zumba.

Weren't they more interested in things like getting the vote, equal pay for equal work and paid maternity leave?

And yes I do know that women's health is important and not everyone works full time and encouraging us to learn about nutrition and the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle is going to contribute to our longevity so we can monopolise the remote control in the nursing home rec room

but

this seems to me at least

to be

just a little bit

um

patronising.

But hey, at least they're offering free childcare! I'm sure they'll be swamped.

*Not, I stress, the expensive and dodgy chain of gyms I give money to and pretend to attend. Something for free? Not likely

Product disclosure

Last week a colleague I don't know very well was going to Japan for a holiday. He said that he was spending a few days in a mountaintop monastery and was wondering how he'd cope with the silence.

This instantly made me think of David Mitchell's Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

I asked if he read fiction and would he like to take this book with him.

He did and he said he would

but

as I handed my copy over I had some serious qualms about whether I was acting in accordance with my workplace code of conduct.

I mean, the first chapter is a fairly graphic description of a very difficult childbirth and some other extraordinarilty nasty things happen especially in the mountaintop monastery in feudal Japan.

Was my loan going to ruin his holiday?

He said he'd take my warnings on board and we both admired the cover. All of David Mitchell's Australian editions are gorgeous to look at.

I'm still waiting for my postcard.