A new friend and I wanted to go for drinks today after our day of meetings. So we went to the Congress beer tent, figuring, hey, since we're here, why not? As we walked into the tent area, the security guard greeted us (as "girls," I noted). We found that the beer tent area was about the most depressing place either of us had ever seen and decided that we'd rather poke our eyes out than sit there for drinks, so we would leave UBC and go to an bar downtown. We turned around and I said to the over-interested security guard on our way out, "We changed our minds."
Said he, unironically: "That's okay. That's what women do."
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7 comments:
Heh. I actually kind of love unironic comments like that, because at least you know what the person is really thinking. Sometimes (well, often) I think that we academics lose track of what most normal people actually think like on a daily basis... and it's those unironic comments that bring me back to reality in a hurry :)
All the more reason not to hang around.
Hope you found a less sexist environment to have a few beers.
Maybe you were not the first women to have turned around and walked out of the beer tent? (trying to put a positive spin here) . . . but, nah.
Maggie: Yeah. Certainly it provided some incredulous amusement. I was so aware, as I wrote this post, about the class difference that was written into even the retelling of it, of professor versus security guard. Ugh. I'm actually thinking of a post about all the awful moments of similar recognition that are characterizing this conference for me.
Psych Post Doc: Yup, we had yummy drinks and nachos downtown.
Dr. Bad Ass: Thanks for trying the positive spin! :) You never do know...
well on the plus side, you're in lovely vancouver!
Can't wait for the class analysis of the Congress!
Eck.
I was recently with a man who was buying a straight razor, and the guy who was helping him said--to me--"He's brave, buying one of those things with a woman in the house!" Now, okay, I'm sure that that was some kind of attempt at humor, but I really didn't know what to make of it: Was he joking about some underlying assumption that women are murderous? Or that men and women are at irreconcilable odds? Was it one of those hideous PMS gags? Or...what? And why are generalizations about gendered behavior considered such fair game, anyway? Is it supposed to be universal and hence common ground? I guess that's it.... We all KNOW that women are fickle, so remarking upon the fact is a way of making small talk with strangers.
This is not to bash your security guard, by the way, but rather the culture that engenders such presumed commonalities of experience.
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