Whine of the Week: Feminism

CHARLIE DOWELL has had just about enough of this feminism malarky

2010 bordeaux brain bums cerebral Feminism knee jerk

This past Saturday was the occasion of my 21st birthday party. Friends, embarrassing relatives, good conversation and of course wine, were present in healthy portions.

The cogs and spokes of the evening were well lubricated by scintillating bottles of Z Bordeaux 2010. The flavour was clean and low in tannin, not too sharp, but with a hint of acidity that washed down our meal of lamb well.

Rating: 4 star

Occasion: 10

As pudding was being digested, the speeches began. The topics were racy and taken out of context may have caused some outrage. An eavesdropper may have caught a snippet of an old school joke and branded me a racist or a homophobe. This reaction, out of context and with little thought, brings me on to my whine this week: the knee jerk reaction.

Physiological not cerebral

The process of the knee jerk reflex requires no cerebral engagement. Only two neurons and one synapse (the connection between the two) is required to elicit the response. Your brain is largely dissociated. Gone. Not there. Thinking about something else.

This physiological action is entirely appropriate to help coordinate leg movements, or to instantaneously kick your doctor in the crotch. Such fast action, requiring minimal brain intervention, is entirely inappropriate and quite frankly insulting, when it comes to important and weighty issues.

Too often responses to problems, articles or someone’s point of view, is met with an immediate action with little or no time for processing. You only need to look at a certain twitter argument last week, or a debacle involving a particular unnamed columnist to get my drift.

No not this columnist

Now for the most part, your lovely genome has given you a working mind. You would be doing a disservice to billions of years of evolution if you didn’t fucking use it.

Read, ask around, contemplate, form your own opinion, don’t tout the first point that comes into your head. More often than not your primary response will be conditioned and usually a little defensive. Take time to think about another person’s point of view. They probably have a functioning mind as well.

This process does not mean you cannot be inflammatory or provocative, but it does mean you should be considered.

If at the end of this article, after careful consideration, you think I am a dullard, by all means comment. If after reading this title you think I am a chauvinistic prick who hates women, take a step back and engage those little grey cells for a tad longer.

Who gave this man a platform?

We all make mistakes with our views, even after time for contemplation. However errors are minimised and thoughts sharpened after using our brains. Just tap your knee and you will notice how coarse your leg movement is in comparison to when you voluntarily swing it. The same is true for thoughts.

Anyway, I think I should have another bottle of that Bordeaux so I can form a more educated picture of what was a stunning wine.