So let's talk one-gender-only events . . .

So apparently there's outrage now over "women-only" screenings of a movie that will be readily available everywhere at the same time? And about a movie that features an island of only women, at that? I really have to laugh.

Now, I'm sure there is some clever lad out there who's going to go straight for the "Gee, Brad, you were always against men-only Sherlockian functions. You have to be against those women-only screenings, right? Otherwise, you're a h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e."

Two concepts, here, straw man I just created. First, situations that have a similarity are not necessarily the same. And second, have you ever heard of the concept of "punching up?" And a free, bonus third thought: That "hypocrite" label is the sort of ad hominum argument you use when you've got no actual arguments on your side so you just go directly for discrediting the opponent.

In a world where men are still doing actual physical damage to women with no equal and opposite reaction, I think the male ego can stand the iddy-bitty slap that is a female-only movie showing. And it's not even intended as a slap . . . it's an act of bonding and empowering at a time when it is sorely needed.

No all-male Sherlockian society ever met to celebrate masculinity during a time when female leaders were controlling the government and ignoring the needs of half of humanity.

I know, I know, social media is all about the outrage. Somebody somewhere we don't know starts saying something totally stupid, possibly in their own outrage, then comes the counter-outrage, and etc., etc., and why can't we just go back to the sixties, when a handful of college girls politely protested in the cold outside a big men-only Sherlockian dinner in New York City. There was no outrage then. Just a letter delivered upstairs by friendly male emissaries that was promptly torn up by the man in charge. And then, thirty years later, things changed when a man decided they should.

A man still decides what women get to come to that Big Sherlockian Ingestion. It's a fine point, but here's the thing: There's still a lot of issues between the genders we're still working out. Parity has yet to be achieved. Points still need to be made, discussions still need to be had, and a women-only screening, along with the outrage that follows, moves that discussion along.

There's a quote from the Canon that we definitely have to use this week as the new Wonder Woman movie premieres. It's almost t-shirt worthy, taken from its "Thor Bridge" context and given a Wonder Woman spin, so that's what I'm going to close this little rant with.

". . . and the heat of the Amazon was in her blood."

That, is not always a bad thing. Not bad at all.