Irksome

Certain things in life irk the hell out of me. Strangely, I find that a lot of them are done by women. Now, I'm sur none of YOU ladies reading this post do such things (cough, cough!) but let's review for a moment just so you all know that I'm not being blatantly mesogonistic.

Irk #1 - The opening of doors.
Listen, I'm an old fashioned guy in a lot of ways. When a lady is coming in/out of a building I'm happy to hold the door for her. Hell, I hold it for guys t0o if I happen to be closer than they are! It's a common courtesy. What ticks me off is women who don't do it. I see it every day: if I am walking a few strides behind a woman, she will not hold the door for me. They go through without a backward glance, letting it slam shut in my face. That's just rude! I've no doubt that these are the same women who curse roundly when the guy thirty yards ahead of them doesn't stand there, holding open said portal, as her royal highness slowly perambulates toward them while chatting on her cell phone.

Irk #2 - The saying of "Hello".
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I'm a scary looking bald guy. I could understand why a strange woman might not want to speak to me when I say "hello" in passing. I'm cool with that. What bugs the hell out of me are women I KNOW who do this. I'll give them a "hi", or a "good morning" and they walk straight past without so much as a nod. Being the nasty SOB that I am, I tend to call them on this. I have fun stopping in the middle of the hall and saying (loudly!) "Oh, I'm fine, Jim! How are you?" They usually get the point and turn about to say "hi". They all apologize with the same bad excuse: "Oh, sorry! I was preoccupied." Preoccupied? Listen, I deal with men doing multi-million dollar deals, and in the midst of a divorce, who can spare the three seconds to say hello. Having a busy and/or crazy day does not excuse you from being courteous.

Irk #3 - The giving up of seats.
Again, I have no problem giving up my seat to a woman. I feel uncomfortable sitting while there is a woman -of any age- standing. (I was brought up that way, ok?) What irks me though are the women who I have heard go on at length about equality and -in many cases- the SUPERIORITY of wome in general, who get pissed off when some teenager doesn't give up his seat on the bus for her. Hey, I believe in equality 100%! I also think that equality doesn't preclude me being polite, so I do get up for women. That said though, it burns me that it's "expected" by women like this. If you're that boy's equal, then you can stand just as long as he can. Why is it the ladies most vocal about their "rights" are the first ones to fold when it's inconvenient? The fact is, there are ladies out there who are tons stronger and tougher than my fat old ass will ever be! They don't need my seat, nor should they automatically expect it. (I however, will give it to 'em anyway . . . it's just a thing!)

Irk #4 - The selectiveness of memory
In my life, I have yet to meet a woman who told me about how helpful her husband is. Put three women in a room and in thirty seconds it becomes a man bashing contest. They love to go on about our shortcomings at great length. See, men aren't like that! Put three of us in a room and we're talking about sex . . . or football. (or better yet: getting sex while we watch football!) Women though seem to get the most joy out of belittling their spouse. I listened to three ladies in the kitchen at work today tear into their husbands with such vengeance I figured the guys must have done something cruel to their cat with a fork. Nope. Just the general "Men are assholes and we're saints for staying with them" line. Okay, so: we can be assholes a lot of times . . . but then, so can the ladies. I imagine that puts us back on equal footing, don't it?

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I have no idea where it came from (other than the lady who let the door slam in front of me as I came back from grabbing luch today!) but I figured I'd let the fingers fly and this is what came out. If I offended anyone . . . well, too damn bad. After all, you have to consider that as a male I'm only a step above neanderthal so really, you can't expect very much from me can you? ;-)

Later!