...completely out of the blue, and for no reason whatsoever.
I was walking my dog around the property where I live, minding my own business, when I pass by a group of local kids. They were just hanging out and laughing. All of them were male, between roughly age 13 and 17. I didn't take a good look at the group, so I'm not sure how many they were exactly, but there must have been at least 6 or 7 kids. I actually know one of the boys, the son of Jose, a guy who works here, but I had never seen the others before. I simply assumed that they were family (cousins maybe), because sometimes their relatives visit form mainland.
Anyways, as I walk by, one of them says in English "hey baby", which makes me cringe. That type of cat calling rubs me the wrong way, but because they were young kids, I let it fly and ignored it. The level of education in this region is extremely low and poverty is high, so I can excuse a certain level of ignorance when it comes to behavior. By calling me baby, they probably didn't think it was bad, and so I brushed it off and kept walking.
Apparently annoyed by my ignoring him, one of the older boys all of a sudden says the word "BITCH". With his heavy Spanish accent, it sounded more like beech, but there was absolutely no confusion about what he meant to say.
My immediate reaction was similar to when you light a barrel of gasoline on fire (he was the lighter, I was the barrel), and in hindsight it may have been a bit strong on my part. But why shouldn't it be?
Scenarios like these are all too common. A man tries to get the attention of a woman, fails because guess what, maybe the guy is ugly as fuck and she has something else on her mind, so he insults her.
When I told my friend Lisa about my incident, she said that this happened a lot to her too. A guy would tell her "hola guapa" (hey beautiful), and if she doesn't respond positively (meaning with a smile), they would call her "fea" (ugly). So what is it? Pretty or ugly? Make up your fucking mind!
Another friend of mine who works with troubled teens called me earlier on, and I asked her what an appropriate reaction on my part should have been. After all, a teenager's brain is not fully developed yet, and sometimes what seems "normal" to us isn't necessarily to them. She said just smile, say thank you, what's up can I help you with something and take the high road.
But I disagree.
If a fully grown man does that to a woman, he probably deserves a kick in the balls or worse, but whatever you say or do to him will not change the way he's wired. With fully grown adults, it's pointless since they won't change.
You can't teach an old monkey new tricks, but you can teach a teenager to freaking respect women.
And so I made sure that he got the message. As I was walking back home with my dog, I tried to calm myself down, but my rage was so strong that I felt like going to the gym and roll a few rounds. I don't know if it will ever be possible for a guy to completely grasp what this type of behavior feels like to us ladies. Sometimes I wish I had a D***, because life would be so much easier.
When I got home, I saw Jose, the father of one of the well behaved kids and told him the story. Jose is very religious and was shocked by what he heard. He promised to set these guys straight. I smiled, and told him not to worry, that I had already done that. I just wanted him to know what had happened, because these boys clearly need a better role model. If their parents weren't able to teach them that women deserve to be respected, at least Jose can show them the way. It's not too late, they are just teens after all. But make no mistake, they also are the future generation of husbands and fathers, and will teach the same values (or lack thereof) to their kids.
Dear fathers, please make sure to be good role models to your sons. Teach them that a woman is a mother, a sister, a daughter of guys just like them. And to all the cat callers out there, I sure hope you all end up with a daughter.
OSS
My bitch and my pussy
