FBI Reality Barbie

I was watching The Amazing Race the other night, in all probability because my brain was enduring some type of psychosis that meant it couldn't unearth the remote to flick the channel to something more appealing, like 'mute' or 'off'.

One of the teams in the latest series of this fast-paced global backpacking reality game show are a pair of female FBI agents, that look and sound a lot like FBI barbie would if she were involved in law enforcement and crime prevention and could bend her fingers to clasp a glock.

While this pair behave like they have the IQ of a plastic doll - harsh, but true - I figure they must have some manner of skill or attribute working in their favour or the Bureau wouldn't have hired them. Of course, there is always affirmative action, the technique some women rely on to get to where they want to be in life. Winning on merit is, like, so passe.

In this particular episode, all teams were required to erect a fairly complicated and problematic tent structure thing, replete with approximately 80,000 tent poles and throw cushions (seriously), under the direction of a slew of completely incomprehensible instructions. It is my understanding that the more complex a task, the simpler the instruction booklet should read.  However, that's called common sense, which really has no place in the world of instruction manuals.

The all-female FBI pair floundered in their task, not because they couldn't work as a team, but because they "didn't have a male on their team who knows about tents". The words of a couple of FBI agents, not mine.  Which begs the question: when Australia allows women on the frontline - presumably when they have passed the exact same standard of tests as men to earn their place - are they just going to whinge and complain when they don't have a man around to cock their gun for them, because, you know, men know about these things?

Of course there are women in the defence forces who are capable of taking on the same amount of physical strain as the men, but they are few and far between, and they are the ones who just get on with the job without needing to qualify their effort with a gender disclaimer.

What I don't have time for is the garbage I hear from feminists; demanding equality on the one hand, yet special dispensation on the other.  I really can't stand it.  And they constantly bleat about how unfair it is that women are not allowed to do certain jobs, yet they use their gender as an excuse when they fail in the task.  I'm sorry, but I call it as I see it, and this sort of crap just pisses me off.