Sometimes I am shocked how common being misogynist is

It was on the A2, somewhere around the Abcoude exit when ‘What does the Netherlands think?’ on 538 came on. I believe the topic of discussion was what you would prefer to leave at home when you go on holiday. Never have I heard ‘my wife’ or ‘my girlfriend’ so often. And in fact, you can pretty much assume that every morning on the radio there is a man who says something along those lines about a woman. Can be funny if someone doesn't really mean it, but I would only say one thing to the ladies in question whose man dialed in on the radio: run and really hard too.

It increasingly amazes me how accepted misogyny is or how just being denigrating is found. This morning my best friend forwarded a video in the app, it had a bit of the same tenor. At the expense of a woman, with men laughing out loud in response. Now, I happen to know how things are divided at home there, so I have very little to worry about. Only nevertheless. I appreciate jokes, especially those at my expense, but I often sense a bitter truth in them. And that makes me feel like a dick, but at the same time I wonder why.

You need jokes, otherwise you're going to sit around souring all together. Of course, we shouldn't have either. I get incredibly comfortable on schadenfreude, as in: crying with laughter. Nasty, I know. Humour relieves, makes uncomfortable things easy and it puts things into perspective. Till a joke does not go down well or is perceived as not so witty by the other party.

Biologically, we women and men are different. It is true, we can argue that for hours, but the facts are there. In a fascinating piece I read that humans tend to magnify those very differences. Magnifying them makes for funny situations, so it makes sense that this is how it goes. And you know, I participate in this myself. About us women, about men, but maybe the difference is in that radio is a one-way street. So you have the guy who calls, the club who brings a chuckle and no one who gives a good sneer at the presumably medium brain content of the dial-up caller. I think that's what I lack, someone to parry a guest like that for a moment.

So women of radio, next time please return a crude, ribald and harsh joke please. It makes everything better.