Status Report

Since the last time I posted, I have been asked the question four times, twice by the same person, the second time two days after the first.

Yeah, yeah, I can hear yuh sayin it: "Get over it, jerk!"

But something is wrong here, either with humanity or with me, or both. And I need to hang tough with my analysis. Anyway, when I was asked for the second time by the same person within two days, here's how the rest of the conversation went.

"I feel like a miserable, grotesque failure maggot. Thank you for asking."

"What?! That's not the answer I was expecting."

"Really, what answer were you expecting?"

"Well, I don't know... Usually...um..."

"Now, you feel a little nervous and anxious, right?"

"Yeah, just a little."

"And I'm the one who caused your discomfort, right?"

"Mmm Hmmm."

"And it doesn't help that I'm big and old and overweight and loud, does it?"

"Umm, no."

"Do you consider yourself an empowered woman?"

"HUH!?"

"See, I'm just what I said I am."

***

Okay, so I'm not generally likeable, I admit it. But I ask the question again: Isn't it possible that some unlikeable people are on earth to stir us up a bit and make us reconsider things we take for granted? Isn't that what makes some people unlikeable? Is always being able to take the same things for granted more important than *anything*? Is never having to feel uncomfortable more important than *anything*?

Why is it that just about everyone who, in the last 10 years, has said they were nervous around me, has been the same politically liberal adult females who, in other contexts, made such a big deal about how empowered they were?

Right. So now I'm a misogynist, right?

There goes that sexism in language again. There's a word for hating women - "misogyny" - but the equivalent word for men - "misanthropy" - means hatred for all human beings. I guess hating men is not a condition that requires being labeled.

***

You Know You're Ready to Move to the Seattle Area When, #1: You know you're ready to move to the Seattle area when you only like masculinity when it is exhibited my females, and femininity when it is exhibited by the U.S. military.

Fine, thanks. And how are you?