Go on - I'll bite. But the question itself implies some kind of "otherness". I mean, how would you feel? I probably feel the same.
In reality, it's tiring, but women of my generation are used to it. Most of my secondary school education happened before the Equal Opportunities and Sex Discrimination Acts, and I and other girls my age were not allowed to study what we wanted to study but were made to study some things that I was really not good at - and didn't want to be. But they were the girls' subjects. So we were excluded from certain paths of study and therefore jobs.
The fight for equality is not just about not being allowed to serve someone I wouldn't even want to talk to. And while I applaud this thread's welcome but somewhat unusual foray into feminism, the majority of men that I was brought up with, and have studied and worked with, see equality as something women have to earn. That it's something that men bestow if we behave properly. That it's how we want to be "treated". Rather than it being a fact of life. That's the real issue.
Ask yourself why women have to be concerned about what we wear, whether we can walk home alone, who we need to worry about. Then have a look at some of the avatars in use on this board. Have a read of some of the words used as insults by one man to another, some of the words used to describe female athletes and other women and ask yourself if this is a welcoming space. I'm not banned from participating but excluded? Very often. As I said, it's tiring.
Nicely summarised, and sadly so much of what you write is correct.
For me it's not about us vs them, it's about ensuring that those, be it females, blacks, disabled (of which I'm one), or anyone with a clear disadvantage, who struggle to compete, for no other reason than they're different from those who constitute those who create the rules. If someone else suddenly finds their ceiling of opportunity has been raised then I see all of us as winners. I certainly don't want anyone to be treated as a 'lesser' version of myself, just as those who marched in the civil rights drama of 1960's America opposed the racist climate that existed in the south. They did so because the sheer injustice of treating fellow human beings so unfairly and cruelly had exhausted it's right to continue.
Of course racism still exists everywhere, but the gist of my argument is that if we don't try and make a difference then things will never change. Those who've created conservative rules and mindsets will, of course, fight tooth and nail to maintain what they've created. But it's often the case when they see that their 'empires' are threatened that they're at their worst, so, just like the gun lobby in the states, they refuse to do the decent thing. They refuse to accept that the world would be a safer, better, place if only weapons were restricted or banned completely. so it is with every other form of tyranny, which, as you identified, was created by men to benefit men. Women, on the whole, aren't held in the same regard as men. This particular struggle continues, sadly, but there are very savvy women out there. They have learnt that to change things they often do it from within, but sometimes even this has been found to come up short, so they resort to what you might refer to as political guerrilla warfare. Often this has the reverse impact, mostly on those men whose belief system is ingrained to the point of being diamond hard.
I wish I had answers to any of this, but it takes a perspective and resilience on a par with Catholicism to make the necessary changes. Often it's not about expecting changes in decades but centuries. Of course that's shocking, but it's the reality in a world where assuming that change will happen is to find that you're blocked at every turn. None of which will stop me from airing my views, even if I appear to be in a minority of one. Change has to come from within, and only then can we hope to influence others. It's a hard, long, slog, but if you're seeking to improve the world we live in you must be prepared for ridicule, anger on a scale that can be frightening, systematic change that's designed to crush your will, and so on. I think that what has been discovered, and should give us hope, is that progressive ideas are like seeds, and once something takes a hold there's often little that can prevent it from growing. One cautionary note; we should be careful to avoid, or resist, the dark arts employed to ensure that a clearly progressive idea isn't diluted to the point where it's barely effective.
Apologies for the ramble, but regarding the Prince and what may/may not have happened in his name and belief system. Everything matters, no matter how small. As I wrote elsewhere, suffragettes didn't suffer and struggle to discover that a female could be removed for being female. You might as well endorse
'Blacks only' drinking taps or washrooms, or allow signs that scream,
"No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish".
