Current Events > Well I just got caught up in one of the silliest arguments I've had in a while.

(+) Yeah! (+)

There was this social event going on in my neighborhood a little earlier in the day. People came out and had a good time, etc. At the end of it, I and some others, stayed and helped clean around and put stuff up. One of the things I was getting ready to break down was this table, but this girl I'm fairly acquainted with tells me not to worry, she's got it handled. Cool. I let her do her thing and she breaks the table down like a champ and carries it away.

I'm going around looking for something else to do when these three old guys call me over. I'm familiar with them. They live nearby somewhere. Two of them I see fairly regularly around my side of the neighborhood. They're okay for the most part, but the conversations I've had with them in the past ranges from pretty normal to slightly questionable. Example: One of them once "explained" to me that it isn't cheating if two people aren't married. Marriage would mean a relationship is committed, therefore going behind your partner's back outside of marriage is fair game.

Anyway, they call me over and they're chuckling and stuff. One guy says, "We noticed that you let [the girl] put the table up," and I tell him "Yeah, she said she had it handled," and they start giggling at each other even more and he says "As a man, you should have override that." One of the other dudes asks, "Are you a feminist?" I tell them that I don't see what that has to do with this and that I don't go around calling myself a feminist, but I do think women are capable of doing things men can do for the most part. It's not a big deal.
Then that same guy says, "Can a man give birth?" I should have just walked away right there but instead, I just told him how stupid he sounded, so he says "Would you give up your seat for a woman on the bus?" I don't even know what this guy is arguing anymore. So I ask him if he believes a woman is capable of doing most anything a man can do. He starts going on some spiel about being married for 45 years but I cut him off and tell him it's a yes or no question. He laughs and says "I'm just going to keep my mouth shut."

And now the last guy. He says something along the lines of, "All I'm saying is, I was raised to always assist women." And I tell him, "I don't go around assuming every woman needs my assist. Especially if they're perfectly capable of doing things themselves and tells me that much. If anything, I assist people who actually need assistance regardless of their sex." Circling back to the other guys' question, "I would, and have, given up my seat to older women and men that needed somewhere to sit when I rode the bus."

I leave them with that and conclude that they're just old dudes with a different way of thinking. I ran into the girl in speaking and told her about that whole awkward encounter. She agreed that they were being weird and I didn't do anything wrong, so that was at least nice of her. Still, I feel really stupid for letting them get to me so easily, ngl.

/Blogfaqs

good on you for standing up to their archaic ideas. the more pushback people give to those outdated views, the sooner they'll be vanquished.

This is why I hate living in a neighborhood. Fuck those guys.

90% of females produce less force than 95% of males, in hand-grip strength -- so offering to opening jars is actually just following the science -- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17186303/