proper and modest

[adrian_turtle]

I like public transit. I grew up in a car-based world, where the only way to communicate with other travelers was turn signals and flashing high beams, and those were dangerous. [1] I'm one of those people who smiles at strangers and says "good morning." When somebody asks the world at large, "why are we stopping?" or "when is the bus coming?" I

Comments

[dichroic]

I think you did good work today. I hope that what the little girl retains is that people - women - were standing up FOR her to the man who was berating her.

[pantryslut]

My instinct of some experience suggests that the preschool teacher didn't say anything because it is her job to keep all of her charges safe and arguing with a man on the bus could well compromise that. (She may have said something to counter his statements after they got off the bus.)

[callunav]

A little late, here, but wow, that made me uncomfortable to imagine. I'm glad you said something and I think it was good and right to, and I wouldn't worry too much about whether you said it exactly the right way or not - the important thing was that he didn't just go unchecked, not so much for him, because I doubt very much from the sound of it that he was going to take away anything from the encounter that he didn't have going in, but for all the people around you, of whatever age and whatever gender. It's important to hear someone standing up against that kind of thing. It can be an important part of taking something out of the realm of 'received truth' and putting it into the realm of 'opinions I have encountered'. And while I'm especially glad for the sake of the child he was bullying, I'm also glad for the sake of the hypothetical 28-year-old woman who used to get bullied like that and always just thought she was wrong for never learning to be more modest when she was little, and suddenly is now thinking about what it would