is Gender a dirty word?

Tonight the subject of Gender came up... It came from a you-tube vid (This youTube vid)

Now for a little back story...

I have a different mind to most (I'm only talking about the normal view of people coming from a White working class English background). I never really saw what made people different. Yes i know coming from different places makes you different but I'm talking about boiling it down to race or gender. I always just saw people as just people. I have tried to work out why racist people see the world the way they do, why a man THINKs it is his right to be paid more then a woman. Believe me I can go on but this is just the way that my mind works. I cant get my head around why you would see anything like that!

Now back to the blog in question... While chatting I told a story that a friend told me the other day. He was carrying a box of heavy things at work and an old lady (working with the friend) said "Why cant a man do the dusting, his got 2 hands just as I have?" after which my friend placed the boxes by her, took the duster and said "ok I'll do that, these boxes need to go up to the 3rd floor"

As I was telling that story and said that he was right- put the right person to do the right job, I got screamed at that how sexist that was, that I was so wrong for saying the lady cant do this job because of her gender... implying that women are weaker then men and so on.
The point of the story was not that she could not do it as she is a women, but that she is older. The old lady made it into a gender issue, not just finding the best person for the job.

What shocked me was that before I had even finished, some people jumped right in to have a go at me. "So does men being physical stronger automatically mean that thy are better?" and "So thats why would men should be paid more then us women". I was wowed at the shit storm that had just hit me.

At 1st I through it something that I said, maybe I painted that picture for them? I went over in my head and worked out that it really was not me, but themselves that did it. There views painted the picture, Even smart people can just become so narrow minded without listening to what is really said.. Expecting to hear something that they have hear a million times over. Trouble is they fill in the potholes before the road is even built.

See I love to talk about anything, even things that THEY say you shouldn't... Anything and everything should be spoken otherwise we will never grow as humans, never open our minds to new things and fix all the shit and trouble we have made for ourselfs in the past.

Now as a White English Man I have a lot of shit to put up with from my forfarthers - from slavery to womens rights and God don't let me forget the British Empire. trouble is that I did not do any of these terrible things, I fight on the side of equality not Political correctness as I think the way that its seen does more harm then good. I call out rastist people I meet, try to make a male chauvinists see what it is that they are saying (as pig headed as they can be)

Look at the end of all this we are all just people, lets just get the fuck along and be happy. After all, thats what we want.... RIGHT?