Noises
Y ou never quite know what you will hear on BBC Radio 4. Just last week, after my shower , I listened to an item about personal noises. It made me chuckle. We all make noises - especially as we grow older - farting, belching, coughing to clear our throats and some of us make involuntary noises when we get up from sitting positions or when we are straining to complete physical tasks - umphing and ahhing. Mind you the central premise of the item was that in general men make more personal noises than women. Men sneeze more wholeheartedly and if a man wants to fart he just lets go but a woman muffles the fart so much so that you don't know she's dropped one. And when was the last time you heard a woman emit an unrestrained belch? The item pushed the notion that in a paternalistic society where men still seem to rule the roost in a world built on sexist division, a man considers it is his God-given right to produce loud personal noises without apology. In contrast, women are rath...