Therapy Of Choice

[caraig]

So after a day of dealing with, among other things, someone so cool they needed sunglasses in the most well-lit store in the mall, and someone whose VCR probably still blinks "12:00PM" eternally; I was on my way out of the mall when I came upon the escalators that went down to the first floor. Of course, the one going down was turned off, while the one that went from the ground floor to the top floor was still working. Hmm... I'm not one to like that old saw about 'Lemonade from lemons,' but....

I looked left. I looked right. I looked down the escalator and didn't see anyone coming anytime soon. Griiiiiiin.

Walk without rhythm... and you won't... attract... the worm.

Comments

[collie13.livejournal.com]

LOL! You're great, Jonathan.

I had a similar "look around surreptitiously, then do it!" moment the other day. It resulted in me using the unoccupied Men's room at a local restaurant, rather than waiting for the occupied Women's room to open up again. Funnily enough I ended up casually tidying it up a bit, too -- my "retail roots" must be showing! ;)

[caraig.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't say I've gotten up the gumption to ever use a women's room. ^^

[collie13.livejournal.com]

Well, it's different for a guy -- if they use a women's bathroom without a woman to "run interference" for them, they're usually considered a creepy stalker type. I know it's not fair to the nice guys, but I can't say I blame the women for that attitude. Heck, I'd be very leery myself of any guy I found walking out of an unoccupied women's room, considering the horrific things I've heard of.

Frex, a couple years ago I remember hearing about a scandal where the men who worked in a particular mine had poked a hole through the wall in the men's bathroom so they could peep into the women's bathroom. They'd done this peeping (without being reported by other men who chose not to peep) for years. When this horribly rude invasion of privacy was discovered, the general attitude of the local men in the town who were questioned about it was, "Well, women shouldn't work in mines."

I'm sorry, that's not an adequate explanation or justification! This reaction, unfortunately, included men who weren't working in the mines, and men who didn't use the peep hole but didn't bother reporting it! I always find that puzzling, considering how outraged the guys would be if it had been done to them -- do these guys really think that sort of bigoted double standard is okay? The only men who realized just how incredibly wrong this was were some (not all, astonishingly) of the husbands and fathers of the poor women.

So I guess if nice guys want to not be considered creepy stalkers in such a situation, they need to better manage what's considered societally acceptable by men, and report stuff like the example above, and not just passively sit by and mumble stuff about boys being boys.

Boy, did this go off-topic... ;)