Apparently, I’m A Bitch

So, I am at the Motley Crue concert with my niece.  She mentioned that she wanted to see them which, surprised me because she is only 18 years old.  It was her birthday last week so, being her favorite Aunt, I took her.  Alice Cooper is touring with them and let me tell you, that 72-year-old man was amazing!  When he went off stage, I turned to my niece and told her that if Alice Cooper was that incredibly good then, Motley Crue was going to blow her mind!

The lights start to go down.  We had great seats!  This giant man starts to walk past us at exactly the moment Motley Crue was coming on.  Now, a normal person would understand this and quickly walk past to get to their seat, right?  Well, THIS guy stops, sees that I have my camera ready and TURNS AROUND to watch the show right in front of me as he was squashing me into my seat.  I yelled, “please move on”.  He turns around and looks at me and then turns to continue watching the concert begin.  I then yell again, “PLEASE get out of my way”!  He hears me and continues to stand there while his friend who is behind his is urging him to continue walking to his seat.  I then YELL, “Will you get the fuck (I swear….sorry) out of my way”!  He turns and yells BACK at me and gives me that ‘wanna go’ look.    He just stands there and stares me down.   I am a Nurse so, I boldly stare back.  I mean, what was he going to do?  Hit me?  I then have to ask him AGAIN to get out of my way and I  said it the same way as the last time I said it.  He finally moves on, staring me down as he walked past and beyond.  He then yells, “You’re a BITCH”!  Wait, was that supposed to reduce me to a puddle of tears?  Was I supposed to feel intimidated?  Insulted?  Yawn.  I gave him an amused look and forgot about him.  As a Mom, I would be horrified if my son ever treated a woman or anyone like that.

Why is it that anytime a woman tries to stand up for herself she is a bitch?  I was nice at first…he is the one who would not move.  Was I supposed to bow to his masculinity and miss the start of the concert?  I don’t think that will ever happen…now with me, anyway.  I instantly forgot about him, and went on to see the best concert I have ever seen in my life.  My niece LOVED it and said it was the best concert she had ever seen in her life!

Turns out he was in the wrong row to begin with.  Dumbass.

Women are a different species…

I LOVE being a woman…love everything about it.
The only thing I LOVE more are the differences between men and women!!!
Great post from a GREAT blog!!!

See, there's this thing called biology...

This is in response to a humourous blog post OM did a while back, called Women are Crazy. We are, we are nuts! I say that rather shamelessly, in fact, I rather enjoy the craziness of women.

My husband once muttered under his breath in exasperation, “wonderfully and fearfully made,” which caused me to snort coffee out of my nose, which pretty much sucked all the wind out of my sails. It is nearly impossible to make a proper indignant and self-righteous declaration with coffee coming out of your nose. My husband never fights fair.

Women are not just crazy, we’re an entirely different species. Sometimes when I say this, it annoys people. The last time I said men are aliens I got four indignant comments. Gosh I’m sorry people, I’m not writing a peer-reviewed science paper here. If you think there is so much doubt that men and women…

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My 15 Year Old Daughter’s Lesson on How (Some) Men in our Society Treat Women

My son, who is now 18, had and Xbox when he was younger.  I used to listen to him as he spoke to his friends on Xbox Live.  He kept his conversations to what was going on in the game and casual conversation with his friends from school.  I never heard him say anything inappropriate.

My daughter, who is now 15, decided to get into gaming about two years ago because her best friend from school  had urged her to.  She bought an Xbox 360 with her Christmas money and found that she really enjoyed playing video games.  When you get an Xbox Live account you have to choose a gamer tag which is the name you will be known as by all of the people you play games with, friends and strangers.

My daughter, new to all of this, chose a gamer tag that included her first name which is very obviously a girl’s name.  As she started playing she would join a “party” of people who were playing a game together.  Xbox live is set up so that you can speak to the people you are playing with.

Sometimes I would watch her play and once she had me put the headset on so I could hear what the people in her “party” were saying.  What I heard was a group of boys and men making extremely inappropriate comments about MY daughter.  They were saying all sexual things directed at her.  This happened to her in every “party” she joined and every single time she played.  All because her gamer tag had a female name in it.  The group mentality and the anonymity of hiding behind the internet only encouraged them to say whatever they felt like saying.  Her Inbox, a way to send short messages to other gamers, was filled with messages asking her for sexual favors and abusive comments that were based solely on the fact that she was female.  I was saddened and a little horrified but, not at all surprised.

I protect my kids with all my might but, I don’t shelter them.  I know they need to see how the real world operates and me shielding them from that will not help them.  This experience became a great opportunity to talk to my daughter about how some men feel like they can treat women, as if it’s their right.  It became an ongoing conversation about how she should be treated by any man in her life.  I guess she had already learned quite a bit from me because she knows that I have very distinct expectations of how I should be treated with respect by any man who I come into contact with.  I respect them and they respect me.  If they don’t then I don,t bother with them.

What bothers me most about this is how we as a society are raising our sons.  I have a son who would never dream of disrespecting a woman, online or in person, or trying to intimidate her by his comments.  He learned that from me.

So, who are all these boys on Xbox live who don’t understand that it is wrong to speak to a female in such a manner?  What are their parents teaching them?  Why on earth, in 2015, are women still being treated like second class citizens?  Those are questions that parents need to ask themselves.  We need to model better behavior for our sons.

As for my daughter, she changed her gamer tag to one that does not indicate her gender and now only gets inappropriate comments if she speaks and they figure out she is female.  She avoids playing games with strangers and keeps it to her real life friends.  She is not at all happy about how she has to hide her gender in order to peacefully play her games.  She has distinct plans for her future that involve getting a good education and walking, head held high, straight into this mans world and teaching more than a few men a lesson on how a woman should be respected.  I know she will do it.  She is determined and unstoppable.

So, look out world because here comes my daughter!