We Need to Talk: What pissed you off this week?
By Sasha
Good, it’s Friday. I’ve written before about microaggressions, those tiny, maybe apparently innocuous phrases, questions or comments that make us feel excluded, insulted, or objectified. I had one of those happened to me yesterday. Remember how Wednesday I wrote about my body and how my deviation from our cultural “norm” sometimes makes people feel entitled to treat me as an object? The very next day I was riding my train home from work. I was listening to music and reading. A teenager stopped in front of me and started talking. I paused the music, set down my Kindle and said “What?” The kid replied “I’m selling chocolate to raise money for school. Want to help? I know you like candy.” Because I’m fat, ya know.
What did someone say or do to you that pissed you off, made you feel self-conscious, or singled out because of your difference from the (white, male, theist, thin, able-bodied, straight, cis) “norm”? How did you feel? Did you reply?