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February 07, 2001
Battle of the Sexists
Males seem to feel some need to be condescending towards women. Why? I have no idea. Take today for example, my chemistry professor (who I had previously thought was only condescending to me because I was stupid) decided to make a sexist remark . . .
He was handing back our assignment from the last lab and he didn't have mine (the assignments were in bottles, I won't go into the boring explanation) so he hands me a new bottle and tells me to use that. A few minutes he comes out of his office with my old bottle (smaller and more slender) and hands it to me and says, "You would probably rather use this one. It's more feminine." What the hell does that even mean? I don't even know what to think about that statement. However I'm still perplexed and a bit offended by it. Does he really think that I'm some kind of prissy prima donna? Maybe he was just trying to be nice, I don't know.
Perhaps I'm reading too much into this comment (I just read an article about how little women doctors get paid compared to male doctors) but I was offended. Rather than take the issue up with him, I used the "feminine" bottle and didn't complain.
Later on, I was given a beef dinner at a Mexican place when I ordered veggie soft tacos and was talked down to by the manager who called me "darling" and "sweetheart". The only men who can call me sweetheart and not make me queasy are guys I've known forever and the geek in the hair net and greasy jeans isn't one.
I have no problems being a girl. I don't care that I'll never make as much money or get as much respect as a guy who had less education and less brains than myself just because I don't have a phallus hiding 'neath my jeans. However, I don't appreciate being talked down to by professors, who should treat people equally since we're all paying them the same thing, and food service people who I am also paying. Since I'm paying for these services, I should get the same thing Johnny Penisforbrains gets.
This is just one more thing that leads me to believe that school isn't worth going to.
Posted by vixen at February 7, 2001 08:06 AM
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