ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Finally, the debate about whether or not we live in dumb times is over.

Now that it’s summer, complaints by so-called feminists that air conditioning is sexist have arrived back on our doorstep like an unwanted gag gift.

It pains me to remind you this dumb complaint about air conditioning made headlines last year when actress and apparently not hot Cynthia Nixon was running for governor of New York. Her complaint that room temperatures were “notoriously sexist” reminded everyone how identity politics requires those afflicted to be concerned only with themselves.

Oh sure, legacy media scrambled to shore up this first world problem as something we should all be concerned about. The New York Times jumped in during that summer of 2018 in an effort to make this less dumb by interviewing another woman who also found air conditioning a plot against women:

“Kerry Howley, a professor of creative writing at the University of Iowa, who wrote on Twitter that she never ‘felt more invested in a political debate,’ said her remark was meant to be facetious. But she said Ms. Nixon’s request for the temperature to be 76 degrees was perfectly reasonable … “I feel like cold office temperatures are a burden that are placed on women … I feel like it affects performance in a way that is surprising to people. I become less effusive, less articulate, less extroverted when I’m uncomfortable with the temperature.”

Who wants to tell Ms. Howley office temperatures are just office temperatures? They’re not aimed at anyone. In a large group setting, nothing will be perfect for everyone, and those who are less comfortable are not targets of anyone.

In the meantime, the Earth made another trip around the sun, and like magic it’s summer again, prompting more accusations of deliberate office sexism as implemented by the weapon of air conditioning.

Right on cue, just this weekend Atlantic writer Taylor Lorenz tweeted, “Air-conditioning is unhealthy, bad, miserable, and sexist. I can’t explain how many times I’ve gotten sick over the summer b/c of overzealous AC in offices. #BanAC”

The larger conversation on social media has been about the literal question about the temperature in an office, when what this importantly exposes is the ironic lack of ability of the “woke” to think of anyone other than themselves.

Most of the complaints of the activist left, like the use of air conditioning as a weapon against us, presumes a massive conspiracy implemented by the patriarchy infecting all offices, everywhere. But if this is the goal, to freeze women into discomfort (and being less effusive?), why doesn’t the patriarchy keep women freezing in offices during the winter?

In a moment of clarity, a recent New York Times article addresses the problem of air conditioning and actually provides a revelation for the self-obsessed, suggesting it isn’t sexist at all, “It turns out gender is less a predictor of thermal comfort than other factors, like age, activity level or, tellingly, the relative wealth of the society surveyed, according to studies conducted by researchers …”

Weird. How women feel might not be the doing of men who are out to get them?

In their coverage, Pajamas Media highlights a number of comments from regular non-woke people on social media responding to Ms. Lorenz’s nonsense. From a Twitter user in Atlanta, “Ummm yeah, I live in Atlanta where July is usually 95 degrees and 90% humidity,’ she tweeted. ‘I’ll chance getting ‘sick’… Thanks anyway. And to avoid getting sick, instead of banning AC, tell your office maintenance to change the filters. I mean, this isn’t rocket science.’ “

And even more to the point about how it’s important to think of people other than yourself when making demands of society is Charles Cook of National Review. He reminded everyone of the 14,802 heat-related deaths in France during the summer of 2003. It was mostly the elderly who died.

Mr. Cooke noted about the air conditioning complaint, “… it’s always couched in up-to-the-moment woke language when, in fact, the argument is insufferably insular and privileged. Know who suffers the most from a lack of air conditioning? Elderly people. Poor people. Minorities in the South.”

The navel-gazing concern doesn’t stop there. Last year, feminists were whining about how big the iPhone has become.

The Sun reported, “Apple has come under fire from feminists who say iPhones are now too big for women to hold.” Not. Kidding.

An English feminist activist complained, “It [the size of the phone] genuinely does affect women’s hand health, women do buy more iPhones than men, it just baffles me that Apple doesn’t design with our bodies in mind. We should be furious about this, we are paying just as much money for it as men for a product that doesn’t work as well for us.”

Strangely, Apple is probably thinking about how useful its gadget is — for everyone. As a tool meant to be used in large part for writing, reading and sharing digital media, screen size matters. In fact, it would be sexist for Apple, or any company, to presume that women are helpless victims and can’t adapt to circumstances. I, as an example, have an iPhone and have a thing called a “Pop Socket” attached to the back of the phone that serves as a grip. I adapted and considering how popular the grip is, so have many other people, of both sexes.

But finding a solution is meaningless, and even dangerous, if you’re looking for things that you can somehow use as proof of the sexist world around you. And when everything is about you (in your own mind), that’s not difficult to do.

• Tammy Bruce, president of Independent Women’s Voice, author and Fox News contributor, is a radio talk-show host.

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