kind of annoyed because of a phone call my mom got yesterday, that i also answered because of the ridiculous situation...

once upon a time, i was a normal student in a fairly normal academic environment. my female body meant nothing to the degree of respect people showed me, or how much they'd listen to my opinions and/or advice etc. actually, i'm used to people shutting up when i'm talking, and especially if talking about something that i know something about. i'd also shut up and listen to them, of course, when it's their turn to talk.

but. now i've moved back to this place way out in the middle of nowhere. somewhere half of society is still caught up in some weird misogynistic way of thinking that doesn't originate from their ancestors (i'm pretty sure the old ones respected women more).

they never show a blatant lack of respect though. they just... don't take into account what i say. don't respond to valid points that i make. disregard my authority on some matters. (there really are some things that i know better than most others, and i've pretty much been used to people realizing and respecting this.) and they make decisions despite my warnings that what they're about to do won't go well. as if i couldn't possibly know better than them just because i'm a woman (i'm not, but they don't know, so...)

and now this phone call last night. there's this guy who has a lot against me. probably because i expect him, just the same as anyone else, to listen to me when i talk instead of just completely disregarding me. i'm younger and less male than him, but that shouldn't matter at all. i'd listen to a grade school kid if they felt a need to educate me on some matter that they knew better than me.

he had been bothering the leader of this choir i'm in, asking her repeatedly to put me in my place, whatever he means with that. apparently he thinks i am a problem to the nice and cozy atmosphere that he wants in the choir. well, i do articulate my opinions, but i usually stick to the topic at hand rather than resort to personal attacks (like he has a tendency to do).

anyway. he feels like he has a right to bother the leader of the choir with this matter (she really has nothing to do with it, and she doesn't even see any problem, since he refuses to tell what it is about me that is so bad in his opinion). he feels like she has an obligation to do as he says, probably because she's a woman. in the end she told him that she'd call my mother and me and talk about this matter, just to make him stop emailing her. she was very upset over his behavior.

i told her that he's just acting like a typical misogynist, and his way of doing it is wrong. and if she has any further problems with him complaining about me (why couldn't he just tell me directly that he hates my guts!??), she should tell him to take up the matter with my father.

that ought to put him in his place, or at least shut him up. because he should know that the right way to raise complaints about a young woman in a patriarchal society is to talk to her father. and he should also know my father well enough that he wouldn't dare take up petty matters such as this with him. my father's older than him, and a priest...


anyway, that's for my rant. thank you for reading, any comments are welcome. it's not like i need any advice, i'm just so annoyed at certain idiots in my community. feel free to share your own stories of misogyny, or misandry, if you have any that you'd like to share.

Please keep us posted on how things go. Some people are just ->-bleeped-<-s.

I'm not too sure there will be any updates to this. The guy doesn't have a case at all, so if he's wise, he'll just let it go. I really hope for his own sake that he'll quit while this case is still outside the public sphere.

What makes this case so annoying to me is that he isn't the only male in this area who's misunderstood his place this severly. How stupid isn't that a man refuses to listen to common sense just because it's a woman who says it. Having to ask a man of authority to tell these guys off is just.... I don't know what to say.

At least it illustrates very well how important male voices are to feminism and the fight for equality. The more men hold women in just as high regards as other men, the more will follow.

It does show that everybody needs to be on the same page. Damn that is so frustrating. I come from a southern family and I get what you mean. The only difference is that many of the woman I grew up with are not afraid to put a foot where it hurts the most. I have found that that is the most effective if they try anything.