Picture this: you, your wife and your pet are all taking a boat ride when it capsizes. You’re all wearing life jackets (even the pet), but you can’t assist both your pet and your wife to shore simultaneously.
Whom do you choose to save first: your pet, or your spouse?
For everyone choosing “spouse”, congratulations! You’re wrong.
…Graham Anley and his wife, Cheryl, found their yacht sinking after it hit a reef while on a voyage from East London to Madagascar.
National Sea Rescue Institute North London station commander Geoff McGregor said all three were wearing life jackets. The 9-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Rosie was wearing a tailored life jacket equipped with a strobe light beacon.
“As the incident happened Graham sent a Mayday radio distress call and activated the EPIRB (a GPS beacon) but they were immediately forced to abandon ship,” McGregor said in an interview.
“He first swam Rosie ashore safely before returning for his wife, whose safety line had snagged on the steering gear,” McGregor added.
The couple and their dog all made it out free of injury.
While not exactly a Hobson’s Choice, this still could have been incredibly tragic. And although I’m sure there are some animal lovers out there who might disagree with me, I think this guy is a moron.
Yes, that’s harsh. No, I don’t care.
To be fair, there’s no film footage of this, and the couple isn’t talking. So, any number of explanations are possible. Maybe the wife was more concerned about their dog, and was loudly insisting Mr. Anley rescue it first. Or maybe Mrs. Anley was a world-class swimmer, whereas Rosie could only, you know, doggie-paddle.
But the point is that in a split-second decision, he placed their dog’s life and well-being over his wife’s, no matter whose idea it was. My wife could be punching me in the face while screaming to save the dog, and it wouldn’t matter too much: she’d be losing that argument fairly decisively.
And keep in mind, Mrs. Anley was NOT perfectly safe. She couldn’t save herself, since her “…safety line had snagged on the steering gear“. She was still in danger, yet her husband first saw to the safety of the family pet?
—
This goes back to what I was saying yesterday about men ceding their historical roles when women are in peril (“Making a (small) Difference“). But it’s even bigger than that: humans are humans, and animals are animals. And when both are in danger, you don’t choose to save the animals at the expense of a human: man, woman, or child.
In our modern-day society, the welfare of people is regularly subordinated by everything from birds to the Delta Smelt. Looked at through this prism, perhaps it’s understandable that a man sees fit to rescue the family pooch prior to guaranteeing the safety of the woman he’s promised to “love and protect, in good times and bad”.
Perhaps, …but not to me.
Nope, I don’t care if it was a sinking boat, a burning building, an overturned car, or flesh-eating Reavers: if my wife and pet were both in trouble, I’m not saving Fido first.
Which, of course, makes ME the weirdo nowadays. Go figure.
Two Heads are Better Than One 
Actually, I, TOO, was trying to save my dog while my wife, Natalie, drowned.
Sincerely,
Robert Wagner
Well, it’s not completely your fault, Bob:
Wood is SUPPOSED to float.
(Oooof, that’s an old joke. Sorry…..)
Groan(re that joke).
OK, playing devil’s advocate, I wonder whether both husband and wife were swimming toward shore, and the wife’s line snagged. Hubby, struggling with a dog in rough water, didn’t realize it until he reached shore with the dog? I realize that’s giving the guy a great deal of the “benefit of the doubt” and that it would ruin your post. But I’m just sayin’…
Fair point, Sis.
Hey, I’m completely willing to cede that he might, somehow, not be the complete moron I currently think he is.
BUT: that’s not how it’s being reported. Applying the ‘reasonable person test’: if he WAS being unduly slandered, a ‘reasonable person’ AND his wife would have already said something to counter that meme.
They haven’t, so I’m sticking with my initial call.
I’d love to be wrong about him, actually.
But I have a sneaky suspicion I’m not.
,” and the couple isn’t talking.” Hmmmmm
Like I said!
I’m thinking that an impromptu session of Marriage Counseling could be in their future….
Perhaps the husband is in the doghouse?
HA!!!
THREAD WINNER!!
Take a bow, Mr G!
😀
JTR, it seems (from the last post and this one, among others) that you have a bit of a problem with the male population right now… let me just kindly remind you, it takes two to tango. Over the years, if it was not for all those bra burning, “I can do it myself”, demanding equal everything, “I don’t need no stinkin’ man” WOMEN (no way they get the label of ladies) then we as a society, and the men in particular, would not be in the gender confused situation we are in. And for the record, it is MEN like YOU (and many who follow your blog, comment, etc…) who prove that even though there are lots of jack*sses out there, both male and female mind you, that it is the individual that matters. One bad apple does NOT always ruin the bushel… as a matter of fact, it is worth searching through a rotten bushel, just for the one good apple! 😀
You’re right, Teach, that I am somewhat disappointed in some of my fellow guys.
It’s not all their fault: your point of “it takes two to tango” is apt and absolutely true. Militant feminism has done irreparable harm to a couple generations of boys, at least. And certainly media, movies, books, schools, and women’s magazines have all done their part in neutering young men, as well.
That said, I am actively pushing for men to stand up and start acting like men again. Society needs men and women to behave as gentlemen and ladies: I am simply doing what I can to call attention to those I see falling down on the job.
And of course, my beautiful wife and I are doing all in our power to raise our two sons to become good, strong, kind, solid men.
Feminism has done damage to the females as well… when my husband and I were dating, he said I was a lady. I ‘pfft’d and argued’ the term with him… I did not know I was a lady, because I did not truly know what the term meant. But he, as a gentleman, kept treating me as a lady, and over time, I was able to appreciate the wonderful differences in males and females… We did the same as you and your wife, raised our children with distinct differences and appreciation for the gender that they are. NOT any easy task in today’s world, but one of necessity which eventually pays off beautifully!
May God bless your family in His Will! 😀
p/s: I’m just as disappointed in some of my fellow gals
Reminds me of a girl I used to date many years ago. She was a straight up feminist. I tried to be a gentleman, but she made it known right quick that she wasn’t helpless and she could open her own damn doors.
Suffice it to say that the relationship didn’t last too long. 😉
I don’t understand feminists. What is so wrong with a man opening the door? Silly power trip, I guess.
Just keep an eye out for a police blotter on the couple. He may be sleeping on the couch…. with the dog.
No way: I read Mr. G’s comment.
The dog gets the couch………..
Read this today, and thought of this post! 😀
Dana Loesch is my in favorite conservative talk radio…
http://danaradio.com/
On The “Lady Bro”
Posted on August 8, 2013 by danaradio
Interesting piece. If you’re going to copy men, how about emulating the best parts of men? Because getting drunk and eating live goldfish isn’t “topping gender roles,” it’s just acting like a drunken spaz.
I’m a student at Princeton, and before I even arrived on campus my freshman year, I heard the Tiger Inn stories: competitive projectile vomiting, harmonious chanting of “tits for beer,” and naked guys standing on tables while strumming their “penis guitars.” I looked on–kind of horrified, but also transfixed. Then sophomore year came around, and a bunch of my girlfriends made a decision that blew my mind. Tiger Inn. They were going to try to be a part of it.
[…]
As one rising TI senior told me, “The guys always want us girls to chug a beer or take a shot, or be a man. There is no pressure for a girl to be a girl.”
[…]
“There was a very specific expectation for femininity in the sorority,” Berbary said. “There were expectations for how a woman should act–how she should be appropriate and respectable. If you pushed those limits too far, you got roped back in.”
Well, nothing says “female empowerment” like drinking yourself into a stupor because you want to keep up with men. Except according to the doc in the Atlantic piece, binge drinking is a sign you’ve “arrived,” so to speak.
“There is empirical evidence to suggest that, in countries that allow women more access to higher education and where women delay childbearing, there is more female binge drinking,” Keyes said. “As countries become less traditional, women have more alcohol disorders. With this loosening of gender roles also comes a loosening of the constraints surrounding drinking for women.”
Is this a byproduct of that elusive “equality” we’re chasing? Or just resulting desperation? So basically women have become alcoholics faster and can’t hold their drank as well as men. Damn, we just can’t get an “equality” break!
I liked this graph from the Slate piece:
I read those lines and immediately got swept up in the gender-role-toppling fervor. “You pound those Jaeger bombs, ladies!” I thought. “Swallow the goldfish!” But then the reflection-hangover set in. And I find that I’m not as heartened as I want to be by Princeton women’s success at out-broing the bros.
Because it’s low brow.
“Lady like” used to be a compliment, but it’s been reduced to a pejorative, a word only nanas use. No “modern” girl wants to be time-stamped with such an anachronistic term. The problem isn’t “equality,” as some discussion questions, the problem is simple: these collegians weren’t raised to be ladies or have modesty. It requires too much to be a lady nowadays, so let’s aspire lower to a “lady bro.” Old timey feminists promoted the view that to be a lady is to live under the bars of societal construct. Society thought that women maybe shouldn’t eat goldfish and drink themselves sloppy at bars because that behavior is reserved for classifications lower than that of a lady. Being a lady meant having some self respect. Now having self respect is considered societal imprisonment. It’s freedom to have little respect, to binge drink and claim it’s about equality, to beg for birth control pills in front of the country because you can’t stop sleeping around. Slow clap for the mind job turnaround!
The bigger question is this: why do grrrl power females always complain about equality and then turn around and constantly scrutinize themselves and measures themselves against the abilities of men? Women will never, ever be equal to men in so many ways that men will never, ever be equal to women in so many ways. We are past the decade of the “the aughts” yet many women are completely uncomfortable in their own skin. The perception that society places limitations on our particular sex is, frankly, bullsh*t. As a woman I feel exponentially more empowered with greater opportunities then men are afforded. It’s a good time to be a lady.
There is no life insurance on the dog…
Oddly enough, there was!
Unfortunately he only bought a 5-year ‘Term’ policy, and didn’t realize it was in “dog” years.
Thus, it ran out after only 7 months.
Should have read the fine print, obviously.