A Lesson in Sexist Thinking
by Dlitman@bellsouth.net
A few weeks ago I was on my way across town to do errands. On the way I
passed a motorist stranded on the side of the road, hood up, laboring
over the fender, two small kids in the back seat. I live in south
Florida. At that time of the day its usually about 90 degrees, 110 in
the back seat of a vehicle motionless on the roadside, but being in a
hurry, and also late for my appointment, I continued on without
stopping.
About an hour and a half later, I was on the return trip from my
appointment, and noticed the vehicle, laboring driver, kids and all,
were still at this same location. I pulled over, walked up to the
driver and asked if there was any way I could help. The
driver wheeled around from under the hood, and in a sarcastic,
imitation of a damsel-in-distress sort of voice, stated,
"Oh!, I'm just a poor little woman, stuck here, and have no idea what to do. Oh
please big strong man, can you save me from this predicament?". (This was
when I first realized the person was female).Then she
bluntly said ....."Fuck off creep! The only goddamn reason
you stopped is because I'm a woman, and you obviously think a woman can't
handle herself in this situation." I (honestly) replied, "To tell you the truth lady, until just this moment, I thought you
WERE a man, but in all honesty I was concerned about the kids in the
back. I was through here about an hour and a half ago, and noticed the
prediciment, but didn't stop for THAT very reason. I thought you were a
man. And now you're accusing me of being sexist, well you're right. I am
being sexist, but not only sexist towards women, (because I probably
would have stopped the first time if I had known you were a
woman). But also, sexist towards men as well, by thinking, Fuck him, he's a man, he SHOULD know what he's doing."
Well as humans do, we stared at each other over for about 10 seconds, and
simultaineously burst into laughter. The woman said,
"I'm sorry, do you have any black electrical tape, and could you please run back to the
last intersection, and get a couple of soda's for my kids?"
I gladly did so, and brought back some electrical tape as well.
The incident ended, with the woman repairing her own burnt wire, while I served
the kids a soda and ice cream sandwiches. After leaving the incident, I
realized, we humans are so busy recoiled into our protective corners,
defenses up, defending ourselves from the attack position, that we
rarely ever just let human-to-human kindness have a chance to meet in
the middle. From now on I will stop EVERY time, no matter the sex of
the person stranded. I am also sure the woman will tone her radical
defensivness back just a bit, (when it is truly safe to do so, of
course), and I will chalk this one up in my personal log of classic
lessons in modern day life.
By the way,...I hate dainty, pansy asses of
both sexes. We of both genders need to toughen up and stop whining about
every little inconvenience in life!
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