The crystal-clear water beneath 13-year-old Hannah Mighall darkened for a moment. She was sitting astride her surfboard, enjoying the warmth of the sun as she and her cousin waited for the next wave in Tasmania’s idyllic Bay of Fires. Behind them the brilliant-white sandy beach was largely deserted and the surfing had been good so far.
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The sudden shadow below made Mighall instinctively lift her feet – balls of kelp often broke off nearby rocks and drifted in the surf. “They are really slimy so I hated touching them,” she says.Mighall’s cousin, 33-year-old Syb Mundy, who had been sitting on his own board just a few metres from her, raced over and began punching the shark in the side of its head. The shark pulled away from him and as it went underwater it let go of Mighall, lunging instead for her surfboard that was still attached by a rope to her leg.With the board in its mouth, the shark pulled Mighall underwater for a second time. Moments later she popped back up to the surface with her damaged board. The animal had bitten clean through the fibreglass and foam.
Mundy grabbed hold of his cousin, put her on his back and paddled frantically for the shore. Earlier that day Mighall had been practicing water rescues with another girl during training with her local Surf Life Saving association, repeatedly being carried into shore as the “victim”. Now she was doing it for real.
There is no evidence to suggest that women shop more than men. It’s only that females enjoy shopping more than males do. In 2013, a study of 2,000 shoppers in the UK found that men got bored of shopping within 26 minutes, while women did not show any signs of fatigue for a good two hours. Imagine the plight of male shoppers accompanying their partners at shopping malls. The UK study found that one out of two shopping trips with partners ended in arguments. A distraught Chinese man jumped to his death at a Beijing mall in 2013 because, even after a five-hour marathon shopping spree, his girlfriend wanted to check out another garment showroom.
To ensure that men don’t discourage their partners from splurging, some malls have set up day care centres for grown up men. They can relax and watch TV with snacks and drinks while their women empty their wallets and swipe plastic undisturbed. A spa in Gurgaon serves sandwiches and coffee if you go there during lunchtime.
Why do the genders have such different responses to an essential activity of daily life? One theory says that hundreds of thousands of years of conditioning makes men and women behave like this. When our ancestors lived in caves, the males went out to hunt animals while females gathered food (fruits, veggies, berries) from the forests. For the male hunters, it was necessary to make the kill quickly and get back to the safety of the settlement as fast as they could. That’s how some men shop—enter the store, choose a product, make the payment and get out fast.
But female gatherers were not in such a tearing hurry. For them, foraging for food was also a social event where they bonded with other females of the tribe, inspecting every bush and tree with care and choosing the best quality of food available.
That’s how a lot of women still shop—comparing products, looking at alternatives and exchanging notes with friends and colleagues.
