This Week in Aggressions and Microaggressions

Aggressions:

The Fierce Chemist reported to me that an op ed in the campus paper of her New England SLAC argued that feminism has lead to the current imbalance in gender demographics in the STEM fields and other "harder" (ahem!) fields like economics. Because apparently in some primordial eden, women were equally (or over?) represented in these fields, but feminism has made women embrace a "victim mentality" that leads them to conclude that STEM and Econ are "for men" and not take part. The author, who identifies himself several times as a white, privileged, male student, equates feminism and other social justice movements to the conflicts between opposing sports teams, when he is not conflating all social justice movements as being essentially the same in their efforts to alienate white, privileged men like himself. He even claims that the greatest achievement of liberals on campus has been their success in alienating him from their movement, despite the fact that he's totally for progressive laws. The Fierce Chemist intends to write a rebuttal op ed. Go TFC!

Microaggressions:

I told my coworkers at the bakery that I would be meeting The Fierce Chemist's mother this weekend. As is their wont, my coworkers in general managed to not directly respond to the GAY content of my statement, spending 3-5 minutes talking about the restaurant that we were considering going to without ever referencing the fact that I would be eating with anyone but myself. Let alone that this represented a significant step in my (GAYGAYGAY) relationship with The Fierce Chemist. When they brought the topic up again, it was again solely in reference to the reviews of said restaurant. In a day when my coworkers refer to their wives and girlfriends upwards of 30 times and we hear and respond to all sorts of mundane details about their lives, my single statement about my relationship was so difficult for them to process and respond to appropriately that they simply avoided it all together. Sometimes when I bring up The Fierce Chemist in conversation, there is simply a thundering silence until someone changes the subject. As Lewis Carroll said, "a hush fell on the crowd, injuring six." I'm getting tired of it.