So, I'm pretty fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of smart, strong and sexy women. (Pity I'm not a guy or gay, I know).



The sad thing is this. In order to get a guy's attention (his intelligence status is irrelevant here), they have to downplay their; intelligence, independance, passion AND upgrade; sex appeal and amount of small clothing in wardrobe (or amount of clothing they're willing to take off). ' Dude what if she won't sleep with me?' Ummm.... she probably won't want to. Because you're a chauvinistic pig. AND YES! This post is going to be fraught with generalisations. Deal with it.



To add to that there's the added complication- not being taken seriously. There seems to be some misunderstanding, that if a woman shows her vulnerability, emotions, talks about poetry, or shows any kind of distress, she gets shoved into the 'silly, over-emotional woman' cupboard, her opinion no longer of any value (if it even was in the first place). For example- many men consider feminism to be something only upheld by homosexuals, angry women with unfortunate past histories and those who are sexually frustrated. So before you get to calling me a feminist freak, understand I don't hate men. I happen to like a lot of them. But the ones that annoy me are unfortunately a) hard to ignore, b) in my life and c) incredibly frustrating.



And it quite frankly, pisses me off, when one of the brightest women I know tells me that the only way she can get a guy to not be completely threatened by her awesome personality is to act Dumb. It angers me further to know a lot of grown women (with a lot of talent) who had to give it all up once they got married, had kids, and settled into a lifestyle characterised by drudgery and mediocrity. The worst part, is they wouldn't have done it any other way, due to the ticking of the fricking biological clock (or circumstance, or the pressure to get married).



I'm getting into a profession, where I won't be fully qualified until im in my 30's. Fellow female med students have discussed this- we gotta get the degree, hold our own, find the guy, get the house, car etc and spawn. And no, it's not something our male counterparts have particularly had to consider. There's about 10 years to do all of that in between the end of the degree and the end of the fully operating ovaries. Talk about pressure. And THEN! (for some of us), you have to take time out of the profession to raise them. Don't get me wrong, I hear it's a lot of fun. But 5 years out of the game is a long time, considering it's going to take me 7 years to get the degree. The really sad thing is, the number of times I've been advised by various WOMEN to become a GP so I can take care of my children (note: these children do not exist yet, apart from the presence of 23-chromosome egglets in my body). So forgive me if I decide NOT to make life desicions based on people that DONT exist, and probably wont when I get around to choosing a specialty.



And yes. I have ranted. No, do not read this and laugh it off. I have a niggling feeling there will be more, when I can put it into words.