Grilling season is upon us, and that brings up two things at which I excel. Grilling. And complaining. Today, I would like to complain about grilling. Not grilling per se, but how its image is conveyed to we, the people. If we didn't know better, we might think that grilling was a guy thing. We'd be half right. Grilling is a guy thing and it's a gal thing. Like I said, I excel at it and I'm a gal.
Have you ever seen a woman on TV commandeering a grill? I didn't think so. Greeting cards that show Barbie barbecuing? Yeah, right.
So let's say you wanted to buy me a birthday card. You would head to an area of a card store that says "For Her." That section would be full of pink cards that joke about sagging boobs and nagging kids.
Now shift your gaze to the blue cards, and that's where you'll see some grilling. With Father's Day coming up, you'll see loads of cards portraying dudes who not only grill, they golf, they fish and they drink beer. My father, may he rest in peace, did none of those things. Okay, he played some golf...with my mother. So golf is one of those guy and gal things, too. As are cooking, gardening, astrophysics, driving a bus, teaching, governing, nursing and accounting.
I've been complaining about this gender stuff ever since I was a young teen who was told I couldn't play full-court basketball. Something about running hard being bad for the lady parts. It might sound quaint now, but you try screeching to a halt just as you're hitting your stride.