Member-only story
This Lady is Done With Your Nonsense
Don’t test me
The other day, I had to get some copies made for the abortion fund I’m on the board of. (Scroll down to see the flyer.) I went to Fed Ex Kinkos and got in line behind a middle-aged white man. I was waiting calmly until I realized he was harassing the two young women working behind the counter — they appeared to be in their twenties — he was at least in his fifties, if not sixties. Though he was belligerent and insulting, they stayed calm and were nothing but polite to him. I flashed back to all those years when I was in high school and college, checking out customers in grocery stores and later, a hardware store, when customers had treated me that way. I remember how I’d always feel angry and helpless, never knowing quite what to do, wanting to defend myself but not knowing if my boss would back me up. Standing there in the present, watching these women be abused, my blood pressure started to go up. But I stayed quiet, because the young women, to their great credit, were handling him well.
As I was watching this play out, the man turned to glance at me. I was wearing my Princess Leia t-shirt. It says: “A Woman’s Place is in the Resistance.” It’s one of my favorite t-shirts. I love Star Wars, I love Carrie Fisher (who was a damn good writer, by the way) and I love feminism. He paused to read it.
