Ironic Observation #1

15 OCT 06

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We were on the patio at work. We had just got off of our first shift, and thank the good Lord, today was not as busy as the past two days. There were four girls out there with me, and eventually two of them left. The two sitting next to me got into some conversation about a man who quit the day before. One of them mentioned how he had pushed one of the girls at work; it might have been her, but I don't remember, because what the other girl said next caught my attention: "He must beat his wife."
"That is a horrible assumption." I didn't even look up from the book I had gotten for myself.
"No, it's not," she looked at me sideways and tried to justify her statement.
I cut her off, "Yes, it is. We cannot just assume he beats his wife just because he pushes a girl."
"Well, my friend gets beat by her husband, and he pushes girls."
"I push girls," I said, and I was still looking at my book. There was silence and I shrugged and looked up. "But I would never harm my wife."
"You shouldn't push girls anyway."
"Why not? If they deserve it," I let the rhetorhical fade away.
"Well, you shouldn't..."
I looked at them now, rather irritated. "If women want equality, they'll get it." And that was my final statement. They were both quiet after that, and I was sure I had offended the one right next to me, the one whom I had be arguing with. At the same time, I think she got the point. She made one more comment, that I actually agreed with -- something about how it still wasn't right, but that was the end of it.

I had a conversation later about it with another of my co-workers when we got off that night. She could agree with me, and we moved on to discuss how women have the desire to be equal, but still want to be treated better than most society -- and that was a paradox. Oh, the Irony of Women's Rights.