On un-PC thoughts, the limited strength of women and why some roles are truly the domain of the male.

Why do the men who fix the wheels on cars tighten the bolts so tightly? And why do the men who design car parts make spare wheels so heavy?

I'm really starting to feel like it's a big conspiracy to make the female tyre-changing populace feel useless.

I mean I know how to change a tyre. I know where the jack goes and I know to loosen the bolts before I jack the car up because otherwise the wheel just spins and you can't undo them. I know where all the components needed for changing a tyre live in my car, and I know the correct application for each (odd looking) tool. I can, in theory, do it.

What foxes me is a/lifting the spare tyre from the wheel well in my boot and b/loosening the bolts on the flat tyre in the first instance.

Not being able to do these things makes me feel affronted. I feel feak and weeble and what's worse is that it makes me feel the following: that because I have breasts what I really should be doing is flagging down a hunky man to help me, whilst I simper pathetically over his shoulder being impressed with his strength. And his oily hands.

But you want to know the really annoying thing? The really annoying thing is this: Why, WHY when I know how to do this job and I can do it perfectly well given the right amount of time, thankyouverymuch, why is it that as I try to heave the fucking spare tyre out of the wheel well and it defeats me, why is it that what goes through my head is not inspirational thoughts encouraging myself to do the job successfully, oh no.

What goes through my head is the immediate knowledge that a man could do it very easily, followed by the desire to have said man on hand in order to assist me, followed by the horrible frustration of knowing a/that there isn't one available and even more upsettingly, b/that what I actually truly wish for is one to do it for me in the first place thereby relieving me of the problem entirely.

You see, when I saw I had a flat tyre I wanted to cry because I knew, KNEW it would be a hassle to change it. And it was.

It's all very well being a modern, independent, free-thinking woman, one that thinks 'I can do anything!' But sometimes I really feel like that's just not true. In the time it took me to change one tyre I could have cooked 'the man that could have changed it for me' breakfast, lunch and tea. AND done the washing up. And put the washing on. And probably even started the ironing.

***

What? WHAT?!

I know that's not terribly PC, but I could have!

And the worst thing is, I don't know whether to feel good or bad about that. Does that mean I am really forward thinking and can assign the correct tasks to the best people for them, or am I just a useless female who is better at keeping house than manual labour?

And if the latter is true, is that so bad?

I really want to know.

Is that honestly so bad?