The privilege.

I could say I'm a privileged person because I can work from home. And it's true. But it is true up to a certain point, since since we manage a laboratory, sometimes we have to go physically to install hardware. Moreover, since now all of Germany has discovered that it is possible to work from home, and they are following the advice of Nonna Angela called "Mutti", who can do it.

But for those like us it means that slowly it turns out that "if we really want to work from home, ALL must add X". When X is software, it's all right. But the software runs on the hardware, we have many NDAs, and therefore we only trust our servers. And so, sometimes I have to go, together with my "specter asperger" team to assemble things. In short, the vogons of IT.

Oh, yes, in Germany there are only 40 deaths per million coronaviruses, so we risk little, and get it. But.

I am a privileged twice. Because I also have the "male privilege". Because when I go to the server room, (average temperature 10 C) I will only find males. Not that we don't hire women. Indeed, we are almost 50%.

But when there is a risk, even microscopic, males go. Always. I think that's the case since the Neanderthal years. And to say that women die much less than coronavirus. They celebrated the superiority of progesterone and estrogen to the point of nausea: how truncated they are by their victory over the evil testosterone. They also risk less with coronavirus. But we'll go.

It is the "male privilege": that of being expendable in any case.

Because'? Boh. I think it's an example of a creeping matriarchy . It is simply accepted that in case of risk, any risk is too much for a woman. While it's never too much for a man. I don't think it was even discussed. These are things that are discussed when we talk about equal opportunities. On sunny days. On rainy days people say "women and children first", as if to say "male life comes later".

Not that it's new. In Italy, out of 1000 deaths / year at work, 97% are men. The "male privilege", apparently, also consists in being crushed under a press, burned alive under a cast iron casting, drowning in a cistern. This is not my case, fortunately. At most, a UPS falls on my foot.

So I'm a privileged person, because I'm facing "only" the 40 per million risk of getting coronavirus and dying. But the funny thing is that this 40 per million, if you are a woman, drops to 25 per million. But it's too much for them. If anyone has to die from it, it's still a boy.

To this thing of male sacrifice, or if you prefer the fact that my life is worth less than that of a woman, I'm used to it. It's part of men's education, and a couple of years of military service in the navy made it even better for me. Males crack, while women stay safe in shelters, period. The male is expendable. The "male privilege" also includes the fact that in the First World War about 10 million males died, about 87% of the total deaths. The percentage in World War II was not very different.

Male life is expendable. The male is expendable. It is the "male privilege", darling.

Obviously, the boss came to thank us. I mean the male one. The other two are women. And they did not come: ten degrees of a server room are cold, the cold in Germany is something never seen before, and those who live in a tropical country are afraid of getting sick more easily.

We have already raised our hands with our heads, saying that we expect this to be recognized in the annual bonus next year. It is individual, and it means that whoever was there next year will have a cash prize. The male will be expendable, but he is not a fool. Looks like it will happen.

And so next year we will be in the unpleasant condition which is called the "gender gap". Women will earn slightly less.

Here, we took pictures in the lab. Next year, if any of the HRs dare to raise the gender gap problem, we will show the photos, and ask them where the brave girls were.

I am going to use an extremely masculine term. Extremely partiarchal.

"Cowardice".

Next year, the gender gap measured on bonuses will not be the risk premium: the risk was minimal, 40 points per million.

It will be the price of cowardice . Cowardice which is bigger, even more so if the risk is small. It's even bigger if your risk is less than mine.

And if anyone raises their voice, it will be very difficult for me to hold a nice spit in the face, material or verbal. I know what they will bring up. Children and family. But I'm also a father, I also have a family, and I'm gone. I already know how to silence them.

And this is the second price of cowardice:

Turn losers into pathetic.