It's not irrational...

Ok, I need to vent. I was on myspace, and one of my bulletins was from a guy I knew from school. The summer of '01, I was his orientation leader for freshman orientation. He was so shy and freaked out that I kind of took him under my wing. I talked to him online right up til the fall semester started, and didn't laugh at him too hard when he came running into my room wasted for the first time.

Obviously, he was fine. Got new friends...made some serious mistakes (don't we all?) He's back downstate now that he's done. We met back up online a couple weeks ago, and it was nice to talk to him, and now for the first time in 4 years, I got irritated with him. He posted this:

"So, 3 weeks into having my car, BOOM, I get into a MVA, JESUS CHRIST! Fucking bitch in front of me stops short and gives me no room to brake! I have come to the conclusion that women can't drive!"

I understand anyone would be pissed about getting into an accident, especially with a new car. But this is one of my most extreme pet peeves. This is the kind of sexism that's the most dangerous. The casual shit that no one seems to concerned about. It's a stereotype, and it's wrong. Men get into more accidents than women. Why break it down by gender-- some People just drive badly (hard to drive when you have your head up your ass.) What makes me even madder is when people tell me to not worry about it, because it's not serious. It is. It makes it harder to work for equality in the workplace, and even for reproductive rights when there's this insane stereotype that women are inherently too emotional (that's the basis for the bad driver assumption, that women are too emotional and impetuous.) I can handle being called a bitch, because I am, but I think it's rediculous to assume that a uterus and estrogen can negatively impact a skill like driving.


I almost got mowed down in a parking lot last week by some sideways hat-wearing, neon-driving twit...but I recognize that HE is a bad driver, not the entire male half of the species. Is that so hard? And yes, I did email him to say that he's too smart to say something like that.