Challenging social rules
Mar. 27th, 2007 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrThis was a comment I made at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias's journal at a discussion about social rules, and I thought I'd re-post it here.
I vividly remember two instances when I was growing up when on separate occasions two teachers told me something I knew was DEAD WRONG.
One was in kindergarten, when another child was drawing a (rather inept) picture of a turkey. She painstakingly drew a circle on the turkey's tummy, and told the teacher, "That's the turkey's belly button."
Now even I, at the tender age of five, knew that turkeys didn't have belly buttons. But I was genuinely startled by the teacher's response. "Linda," she sniffed, "it isn't nice to talk about belly buttons."
I knew, even then, that there was nothing wrong with any part of the body. Even belly buttons.
The other time happened in eighth grade. I was stopped by a teacher in the hall. "Margaret," he told me loftily (he could never grasp the fact that I went by Peg, not Margaret), "ladies don't whistle." (Edited to add: Oh yeah, and I just remembered: he actually quoted to me, "Whistling girls and crowing hens/Always come to some bad ends.")
Again, I was so startled by the immediate and sure knowledge that he was wrong that I didn't make the obvious answer until he had passed.
I was a lady.
And I damn well could whistle anytime I liked.
Tell me about a time a teacher or a parent or someone else in authority told you something that you knew immediately was wrong.
sartorias's journal at a discussion about social rules, and I thought I'd re-post it here.I vividly remember two instances when I was growing up when on separate occasions two teachers told me something I knew was DEAD WRONG.
One was in kindergarten, when another child was drawing a (rather inept) picture of a turkey. She painstakingly drew a circle on the turkey's tummy, and told the teacher, "That's the turkey's belly button."
Now even I, at the tender age of five, knew that turkeys didn't have belly buttons. But I was genuinely startled by the teacher's response. "Linda," she sniffed, "it isn't nice to talk about belly buttons."
I knew, even then, that there was nothing wrong with any part of the body. Even belly buttons.
The other time happened in eighth grade. I was stopped by a teacher in the hall. "Margaret," he told me loftily (he could never grasp the fact that I went by Peg, not Margaret), "ladies don't whistle." (Edited to add: Oh yeah, and I just remembered: he actually quoted to me, "Whistling girls and crowing hens/Always come to some bad ends.")
Again, I was so startled by the immediate and sure knowledge that he was wrong that I didn't make the obvious answer until he had passed.
I was a lady.
And I damn well could whistle anytime I liked.
Tell me about a time a teacher or a parent or someone else in authority told you something that you knew immediately was wrong.
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Date: 2007-03-28 07:49 pm (UTC)One situation a little like that that went properly was when a kid sitting in front of me in European History class made one of the most ridiculously sexist comments I'd ever heard and I hit him over the head with my book. Luckily the teacher was understanding and offered me a larger book to hit the kid again. The kid wasn't in authority, but he felt he was an authority on everything. I wish I remembered the comment, because the story would be funnier.
And I whistle whenever I darn well please.