To the older man who decided to pretty much sit on my lap in
the doctor's office waiting room the other day, even though there were plenty
of other spots open, I owe you no explanation.
When I got up to leave and sarcastically said, "Alrighty then, I
guess I will just sit in one of these empty spots", you felt it necessary
to admonish me, telling me,"I didn't have to leave". You are so lucky all you got was "my" look and
not what was on my mind; my daughter was with me after all. Although in
retrospect, maybe because she was with me, I should have told you exactly what
I really thought. But I owe you nothing old man. I don't owe you an explanation and I certainly
did not have to sit there uncomfortably because moving wouldn't be polite. Too many girls and women are forced to endure
situations that are uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous for them because we
are expected to be polite.
Maybe you didn't realize you were sitting too close for
comfort. If you didn't, I suspect that
would somewhat be due to the fact that you have probably gone your entire life doing
whatever the hell you wanted because you could count on other people being polite. Maybe you just didn't care; either way, not
my problem.
So whether you are needlessly (because nobody's dick is that
big) stuck next to a manspreader on the subway, or being catcalled (which let's
be honest is just a euphemism for sexual harassment) or experiencing one of the
other never ending uncomfortable moments that so many girls and women go
through on a daily basis...trust your gut, listen to your Spidey sense; go
ahead... get up and leave, give a dirty look, be sarcastic, tell them to fuck
off, accidentally spill that coffee, but don't feel that you need to explain or
be polite about it.
