Women and Children First: Or Why Idealising the Past is Almost Always Bullshit

I just can't stop doing things that are bad for my health - like listening to 5fm, in particular the gibberings of Grant and Anele, that inane twosome who epitomise everything that is wrong with radio DJs. On today's show, they turned their attention to a bit of SRS BZNS, the sinking of the Costa Concordia off the Italian Coast. Odin spare us from Top 40 radio attempting to tackle any topic with more complexity than a cheese sandwich.





Their muddled questions revolved around the practice of "women and children first" and how a bunch of panicked men on the Costa Concordia had pretty much muscled their way onto the lifeboats like rats off, well, a sinking ship. Talk of Ye Good Olde Days ensued, with the days of "chivalry" and "respect" being touted as some sort of past ideal that we had abandoned.

Real talk now. Ye Good Olde Days sucked, just like today. There was never some magical time in our past where people were any less selfish than they are now. Remember that movie which launched Leonardo DiCaprio's career as a popsicle? Let's look at how shit went down on that big boat. The Titanic didn't have enough lifeboats as a cost-cutting measure, although ironically the law at the time required them to carry less than they actually had because safety measures back tended to be even worse than they are now. Many lifeboats were also launched only half full. The poorer Third Class passengers had limited access to the lifeboats and in some cases were locked inside steerage so they couldn't get out. More men in First Class survived the Titanic than children in Third Class. Women and children first unless you're a dirty poor.



As for the Victorian equating of women with dainty children, it's an outdated concept that has no relevance in today's world. Why do we continue to infantilize women even now? The principle behind "women and children first" was to prioritise the safety of those less capable of fending for themselves; children, pregnant women, the disabled and infirm. We need to let go of a culture which continues to treat women as the mental and physical equivalent of children. Heroism and self-sacrifice should not be a masculine ideal but a human one.



But debating high-minded ideas of heroism and self-sacrifice are ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things. The problem with the Costa Concordia (besides the incompetence and negligence of the captain) wasn't that some outdated notion of chivalry wasn't followed, it was that panic took over, and many of the crew apparently tried to save themselves rather than facilitate the orderly evacuation of passengers. Evaluating and strengthening safety measures should, as always, be the key priority in the aftermath of a man-made disaster like this rather than mindlessly looking at the past through a Hollywood veneer.