On Learning to Deal with Monkey Politics, Pecking-Orders, and Bullies
I just posted (slightly edited) the material below as a comment to a thread in Asperger community.
For most of my life, I just never fit in. I was ostracized &/or bullied in school. I had no clue about those with a need to establish a pecking order with every new person. I was clueless about monkey politics.
For me, the learning process has been slow, but I do seem to be learning how to interact in ways which is far far superior to how I reacted to monkey politics in my earlier life.
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Back in the late 1980s I sported a Pink Mohawk and wore spandex when I went out dancing. I liked to dance with all the pretty young gals. I was looking for a young college age lover, but was both shy and picky (no smokers, no drunks), so I just danced and flirted. Sometimes a boyfriend would get all jealous and threaten me. I would smile and point to my nice teeth. No gold. No missing teeth. I would then ask him "Do you know why I have such good teeth?"
The guy then looked worried. There was a rumor going around that I was a retired professional wrestler, which I never corrected.
I then laughed and told the guy "Because I never get into fights! Don't worry about me. I never try to pick up some hot looking gal who has a boyfriend. That would be rude! Trust your girlfriend! She ain't gonna run off on you just because somebody tries to pick her up."
Over the months of dancing, I had more and more people who liked me. This was a refreshing change from most of my life dealing with bullies.