THERE IS NO CODE INTENDED IN ANYTHING I WRITE HERE, WEAR, OR DO TODAY.
April 16, 2011 @ 12:19 p.m.
I will have no Internet access at all tomorrow. I only have 35 minutes, total, of Internet access left today, unless the librarian takes pity on me and gives me a few extra minutes.
(April 18, 2011 @ 12:41 p.m. I have taken out some of what I originally wrote here.)
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April 16, 2011 @ 12:27 p.m.
--There is no question that the people who have gone out of their way to harass me in person since word of my situation got out in Vermont don't have much going for them. If someone is drunk in the middle of the day, obviously uneducated, poorly spoken--you name it, that person is much more likely to approach me and make comments or engage in harassing behavior than someone who doesn't exhibit those qualities or other unattractive qualities.
That was the case even when I was first getting recognized at UVM last fall when I went there sometimes to use their public access computers. The students, both male and female, who took time out of their day to try to get my attention in a negative way weren't the obviously bright, accomplished, good-looking ones.
It's not as if I'm giving any of the people who have tried to bully me directly in Vermont a reason to try to give me a rough time. By approaching me to try to bully me, they give me the opportunity to observe their other unattractive qualities besides their intent to try get on my nerves.
After a few weeks, I mostly stopped getting harassed at UVM. Hopefully, that will also happen in the town where I am now. I've noticed a trend that way, except among the diehard bigots and people who've never talked to me before.
Yesterday, I took the bus into a town close to this one, and on the way back, a woman who I later realized was drunk sat next to me at the bus stop and took out her misery and low self-esteem on me. I hadn't been in that town before. When other people got on the bus, some of them had a high old time making comments.
One woman who had to be in her mid-fifties started harassing me after she'd invited herself to sit next to me, asked the guy in the next seat over "Was it you or your brother who had a crush on me in grade school?" and received from that man a mumbling and evasive non-answer.
That was when it got ugly. The drunk woman who'd sat next to me at the bus stop hadn't stopped talking about her "flooded apartment" after she'd gotten on the bus, and she and the jilted ex-grade-schooler and a few other people kept it up until the bus reached my destination.
I kept my mouth shut the entire time, although as I got up to leave I couldn't help myself from saying "I hope you get that crush sorted out" before I exited the vehicle.
I am not someone who frequently or guiltlessly indulges in class snobbery; these are people who seek me out to try to give me a rough time. Also, they usually don't stop until they get confronted, and those confrontations can go a number of ways.
As I've said before, A joke, as in one, every once in a while, in situations where you know that your chances of offending anyone are slim to none, is not necessarily bad. A crusade to destroy women's dignity, which really is just the first stage of destroying their rights, and a constant hyperfocus on gender; these things are not fine, they are violations.
Copyright L. Kochman April 16, 2011 @ 12:39 p.m.
April 16, 2011 @ 12:19 p.m.
I will have no Internet access at all tomorrow. I only have 35 minutes, total, of Internet access left today, unless the librarian takes pity on me and gives me a few extra minutes.
(April 18, 2011 @ 12:41 p.m. I have taken out some of what I originally wrote here.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 16, 2011 @ 12:27 p.m.
--There is no question that the people who have gone out of their way to harass me in person since word of my situation got out in Vermont don't have much going for them. If someone is drunk in the middle of the day, obviously uneducated, poorly spoken--you name it, that person is much more likely to approach me and make comments or engage in harassing behavior than someone who doesn't exhibit those qualities or other unattractive qualities.
That was the case even when I was first getting recognized at UVM last fall when I went there sometimes to use their public access computers. The students, both male and female, who took time out of their day to try to get my attention in a negative way weren't the obviously bright, accomplished, good-looking ones.
It's not as if I'm giving any of the people who have tried to bully me directly in Vermont a reason to try to give me a rough time. By approaching me to try to bully me, they give me the opportunity to observe their other unattractive qualities besides their intent to try get on my nerves.
After a few weeks, I mostly stopped getting harassed at UVM. Hopefully, that will also happen in the town where I am now. I've noticed a trend that way, except among the diehard bigots and people who've never talked to me before.
Yesterday, I took the bus into a town close to this one, and on the way back, a woman who I later realized was drunk sat next to me at the bus stop and took out her misery and low self-esteem on me. I hadn't been in that town before. When other people got on the bus, some of them had a high old time making comments.
One woman who had to be in her mid-fifties started harassing me after she'd invited herself to sit next to me, asked the guy in the next seat over "Was it you or your brother who had a crush on me in grade school?" and received from that man a mumbling and evasive non-answer.
That was when it got ugly. The drunk woman who'd sat next to me at the bus stop hadn't stopped talking about her "flooded apartment" after she'd gotten on the bus, and she and the jilted ex-grade-schooler and a few other people kept it up until the bus reached my destination.
I kept my mouth shut the entire time, although as I got up to leave I couldn't help myself from saying "I hope you get that crush sorted out" before I exited the vehicle.
I am not someone who frequently or guiltlessly indulges in class snobbery; these are people who seek me out to try to give me a rough time. Also, they usually don't stop until they get confronted, and those confrontations can go a number of ways.
As I've said before, A joke, as in one, every once in a while, in situations where you know that your chances of offending anyone are slim to none, is not necessarily bad. A crusade to destroy women's dignity, which really is just the first stage of destroying their rights, and a constant hyperfocus on gender; these things are not fine, they are violations.
Copyright L. Kochman April 16, 2011 @ 12:39 p.m.