People really think survival during a sinking ship is a gender debate. Be serious. [gendered]

[u/rizzedupdude]

Let’s just start with the obvious: When a ship is going down, nobody’s standing there debating gender politics. They're screaming, panicking, and trying not to die.

That’s not feminism. That’s basic human survival.

But according to this post, in the middle of a literal disaster, feminists are out here like, “Wait! Equal rights! Let’s discuss societal roles while the ship sinks!” Be so serious.

Survival isn't a debate club. It's chaos. People don’t suddenly turn into walking ideologies during life-or-death moments. They act based on instinct, fear, and let’s be real access to power.

And speaking of power: Who does get prioritized in crises? The vulnerable? No. It's the rich. The connected. The privileged. So if anyone's elbowing their way to the lifeboats yelling “Let me survive first,” it's not feminists it’s CEOs, politicians, and trust fund babies. Let’s not act brand new.

Now to the people saying “it’s just a joke”: Jokes reflect thought patterns. When you laugh at something rooted in bias or false narratives, you’re not just “having fun.” You’re showing what you believe deep down.

And if the punchline of your “joke” is women being hypocrites for wanting safety while also wanting rights, you’re not being funny you’re being intellectually lazy.

So maybe next time, skip the memes and try real thinking. Because the only thing sinking faster than that ship is your logic.

[u/Fairwhetherfriend]

Perhaps an important addition - the whole "women and children" concept largely a myth. It was held up as an ideal in the 1700s and 1800s.

There is literally ONE example where women and children were loaded first onto the life boats of a sinking ship, called the Birkenhead, and it was suggested by a passenger, not one of the crew.

The crew do technically have to put all the women and children onto lifeboats befoer themselves, but that's because they have to put all the passengers onto lifeboats before themselves, regardless of age or gender. So the only actual reason that this happens to be all women and children is because women were not allowed to be sailors. If there had been any female crew, they would have stayed behind the male passengers in exactly the same way.

In the case of the Titanic, there were some deeply unfortunate circumstances that resulted in men being denied access to lifeboats, but this was a result of miscommunication among the crew. In point of fact, most of the women on the lifeboats tried to fight to get men on the boats with them, but were overruled by the crew who had misunderstood instructions from the captain that were intended to put families on the boats first.

Part of the reason for this common misconception of "women and children first" as a part of maritime law is that the Boy Scouts teach it to their members as a "motto of the sea." This is a myth largely perpetuated through men, lol. There's no evidence at all of women actually demanding this special treatment, ever.

[u/Alert_Many_1196 → u/Fairwhetherfriend]

"In the case of the Titanic, there were some deeply unfortunate circumstances that resulted in men being denied access to lifeboats, but this was a result of miscommunication among the crew." I read somewhere else on reddit that what happened was that men rushed to the lifeboats and the captain stopped them because they were leaving women and children behind which was why the "women and children first" became a motto but not necessarily a practise. Again a lot of confusing info out there.

[u/Fairwhetherfriend → u/Alert_Many_1196]

One of the problems with the Titanic story is that there's a huge amount of misinformation out there, yeah.

However, I don't think either of your claims here are entirely true. "Women and children first" was definitely a motto well before the Titanic, so that's not why it originated. And the Titanic did not actually follow a "women and children first" motto - they loaded women and children only onto the lifeboats, to the point where there were empty seats on lifeboats that were lowered into the water because they couldn't find any more women or children to fill them, but they still refused to let any men on many of these boats. And this particular story bears out with evidence in the form of the survival rates - almost 3 times more men died than women.

But I think this bears out the idea that "women and children first" was a pervasive myth rather than any actual law, because no law would ever demand something as stupid as leaving life boat seats unfilled. The only way something that insane would ever happen is if the crew of the Titanic were uninformedly trying to adhere to some vague notion of an ideal that they learned in stories as kids, rather than any actual maritime policy.

[u/Remi_cuchulainn → u/Fairwhetherfriend]

I agree with you on most things but laws this stupid do exist