Summary: What does the phrase, endlessly repeated in our media “women and children” tell us. Whenever there is a tragedy, a disaster, or a report of the deaths of people, we hear this phrase “women and children”. This is what makes a tragedy special. This is what makes us, the listeners at home sit up, and take notice. It is the code phrase which tells us who we should care about, and who matters in the calculus of human damage. Women and children are the ones who matter. Men, but the implication of constant exclusion, even in mention of the deaths of men, they dont matter. And we – as human beings, if we happen to be men, those never mentioned humans whose humanity is hidden behind the names of our jobs when we die, we are constantly reminded by the special mention of women and children, that we do not count. We are not humans, and our only worth is in our use to the humans who do matter. Women, and to a lesser degree, children.
