OMIGOD! I've become a Stepford Grrrl.
This is what can happen when a grrl is the Only Grrrl In The Room for too long. If you want to survive (the hospitality suite at a labor convention, say), you adapt. You SMILE. You learn to attach yourself to the alpha males who will protect you (and who are more often than not the same men with the power to authorize giving money to your organization to keep you employed), as long as they maintain a certain degree of "access" to you. You tell yourself it's a fatherly hug... and you smile.
But just the other day I was crossing the street and some man in a car waiting at the light honked at me and motioned for me to SMILE!!!. In that moment, I realized that it had been a really long time since that had happened to me.
See... it used to happen all the time.
The degree of my relative pre-prosac "happiness" aside, that sort of thing used to really piss me off. Maybe I was an angry grrrl then. But I was right to be mad at those assholes.
What kind of person just walks around smiling for no reason? Oh, wait. There was a reason: to be pleasant to look at, to be pretty. I swear, nothing pissed me off more!
So, Thank you, Average Guy in the champagne-colored Camry. Your simple gesture was more effective than a howling wolf whistle. You pissed me off!
1 comment:
Lately, I have noticed a rash of people giving their opinions where they are unwanted. The man at the pet store telling me that the toys I bought were too big for puppies (I told him he didn't even know what kind of dog I have), the woman walking past our house stopping and telling My One True Love how to parent his child (I doubt she knows the first thing about dealing with an austistic child, I'd love to see her do a better job than he does), and the woman telling the Pineapple Mom that she should be using a wheelchair instead of walking everywhere. Damnit, I will buy what ever toys I want my dogs to have, My One True Love will continue to be a good parent without that woman's "help", the Pineapple Mom will walk wherever she wants, and you can smile or not smile whenever you feel like it. People should spend time dealing with their own lives and stop pushing their ideals of what I should be on me.
p.s. I forgot how much I love that picture because it has been a really long time since I've seen it (or you!)
Post a Comment