Kids say the darndest things
Escalator photo by Brandon Stone, originally uploaded by emilyrems.
I wasn’t gonna blog about this because I still feel somehow wounded and unnaturally upset by the whole thing, and I feel stupid for still feeling upset, but I can’t seem to concentrate today because of what happened yesterday. I was on the super-long, super-steep escalator at the Smith-9th stop in Brooklyn, on my way to a drum lesson with Caryn, and when I got about 1/4 of the way down a pack of 15-ish year old boys, rough-housing and being loud, started up the other escalator on the other side. I saw them look up and see me, and my heart sank. I looked away but it was too late. The biggest, loudest one started screaming at the top of his lungs about how his friend had a big cock and he was gonna shove it in me. I could feel myslef blushing, I kept looking away, but I also felt mad that some stupid kids were intimidating me. As they got closer, the kid got louder, and when we were paralell he screamed in my face that I was gonna get fucked so I gave him the finger. That set off a whole torrent of his friends being all like “Ooh - did you see that? She flipped you off!” So of course he started screaming that I was a “fat bitch,” and all his friends joined in. My stomach dropped and the striped escalator stairs started swimming in front of my eyes as vertigo took hold. I thought about snapping the kids’ pic and humiliating them on HollabackNYC, but I really felt like I was going to fall if I let go of the rail to reach for my camera, and every moment took them physically farther away while their voices boomed insluts at me through the tunnel. Basically the incident is typical if you’re a woman trying to go about her business alone in NYC, but it really freaked me out, and made me feel depressed and ashamed and made me cry while playing drums along with the Shangri-Las song “Out In The Street.” I guess there’s no point in dwelling on it. But I can’t seem to stop. As my BFF Han says, when teen boys yell crude stuff at you, no matter how old you are, it feels like you’re back in Junior High again. And being in Junior High is preferable only to being dead.
March 13th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Working with teenagers, I can attest that they are masterful at bursting other people’s bubbles. None of us are invulnerable. But, it definitely sucks. Hope all else is well.
March 13th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
As my English-teacher-friend Errin is fond of saying, “The children are our future…unless we stop them.”
March 14th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Very good. I usually go with “I believe that children are our greatest natural resource, and we must begin mining them for uranium immediately!”
March 14th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Well, that sucks. Sorry to hear about it. I’m a pretty misanthropic person (I’ve already started my own cult of Shiva, with hookers and blackjack) but I’ve never understood the arbitrary abuse of strangers.
People who actually have large cocks, don’t go shouting about it. They have ticket dispensers.
Anyhoo, sorry that you were exposed to living eugenics propaganda.
Hmm… I could start my own HollabackGraz, but people generally do not behave like assholes or problem children here. Silent passive-aggressive has been raised to something of an art form. The way people push each other around with their presence fields (das Wesenfeld, my latest neologism), like goading a ball with a leaf blower is pretty amusing.
March 14th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Eek! What a bunch of mouthbreathers.
March 15th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I will practice my mad throat-punching skillz on them, I swear to cod. I will feed them their own faces.