A good drink spoiled
Apr. 11th, 2007 04:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheIn the Workhouse today I was chatting to another regular, enjoying my brownie and peppermint tea, when suddenly the conversation took a chauvinistic turn. It rapidly became misogynist. When it turned to jokes along the lines of "I don't think women should stay at home... all the time," I put the kids in the buggy, paid my bill, and left.
I'm still shaking with anger. I honestly thought this was a pleasant enough man. I said several times that he was verging on offensive, being offensive, and making me uncomfortable, in various ways. He kept going. I can only assume he was deliberately winding me up, which, to me, makes it worse than offending me by accident through ignorance.
That sort of shit is neither original nor funny. It's not even harmless. It's nasty and damaging, and I won't put up with it, and I certainly won't let my daughters see me putting up with it. Linnea has already internalised that little girls aren't as exciting as little boys, that ladies aren't as exciting as men, that the important person in any given book is male unless there's a clear labelling to indicate otherwise - gender neutral defaults to male.
She's not even three.
I'm still shaking with anger. I honestly thought this was a pleasant enough man. I said several times that he was verging on offensive, being offensive, and making me uncomfortable, in various ways. He kept going. I can only assume he was deliberately winding me up, which, to me, makes it worse than offending me by accident through ignorance.
That sort of shit is neither original nor funny. It's not even harmless. It's nasty and damaging, and I won't put up with it, and I certainly won't let my daughters see me putting up with it. Linnea has already internalised that little girls aren't as exciting as little boys, that ladies aren't as exciting as men, that the important person in any given book is male unless there's a clear labelling to indicate otherwise - gender neutral defaults to male.
She's not even three.