...Boston, you go and do it again.
I'd had a lovely morning with Captain Boyfriend, had just dropped him off at his house after seeing his really sweet new apartment (bay windows! I'm so envious) and was chilling out, about to pull onto Linden Street to go up to campus for the afternoon. Now, Linden Street gets busy at times and it is never all that great a place in terms of trying to see beyond the parked cars which line the street, so I was taking my time deciding when to pull out.
As I'm idling at the stop, waiting for traffic to space out, I hear the double-beep "would you please move" behind me. Uncertain as to whether it was directly to me or maybe a double-beep "hey, person I know, what's up, good to see you in a car" to someone else, I didn't pay any attention.
The cars continued to move along.
Suddenly, the 58-year-old man in the second-hand ex-cruiser Crown Vic behind me pulls out and around to make a right turn in front of my vehicle. "What are you waiting for?" he hollers, stopping a Nissan X-terra dead in its tracks as he whips onto Linden. With all the charm and sangfroid I could muster, I holler back: "Fuck off!". "Fuck you, bitch!" he whoops as he guns away.
I am still kind of boiling with rage.
My initial response to his shitty move (he really did stop traffic by pulling out and in front of me. There was no real time at which I could have gone without causing other cars to either brake or slam into me) was admittedly crass. I actually don't like swearing at other people, because it's a level to which I don't particularly care to stoop. But the past two or three drivers who have been pointedly aggressive and obscene have NOT been teenagers, students, persons of color, or even taxi drivers. They have all been middle-to-older-aged white males, typical old-guard Bostonians -- I could tell by the accent, I promise I'm not just assuming -- with huge sedans and chips on their shoulders. There was one other incident where a young white Bostonian woman told Captain Boyfriend within my hearing that he was "fuckin' retahded" because he wouldn't let her cut in front of him. That's the only recent anomaly.
Sometimes I drive irresponsibly, and sometimes I drive TOO responsibly. It can be frustrating to people either way. Nevertheless, this idea of Bostonians being privileged to scream obscenities at people when they don't drive as said Bostonian would prefer is totally fucked. I truly, truly dislike being referred to by epithets that are specifically female-derogatory. This includes but is not limited to the B-word and the C-word (if you don't know what I'm talking about, check Wikipedia. It will help. It is the font of all pop culture wisdom). I dislike it when people are yelling it at me in cars, particularly when that person has a woman sitting next to them, I dislike it when friends or acquaintances use it around me or to me, either in jest or in earnest. I do not speak to other people like that as a general rule (although having people around me who DO use that language makes it harder for me not to) and I expect to be treated similarly.
I'm totally okay with being called an "asshole." Everyone has one of those. But don't call me a bitch. I will take dirty sanitary pads and rub them in your face while you sleep. That's what you'll get for trying to use my femaleness against me -- I'll use it against you.
Yeah, even you, Crown Vic guy. I know where you live, and it'll be that time of the month, very very soon.
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