For some reason or another, watching a Ni Hao, Kai-lan DVD with Melena this morning made me ponder stereotypes as I washed my hair.  Yeah, my neurons fire in a really bizarre way (which I’ll prove later in this entry), but you wouldn’t have me any other way.  And by that, I mean you’re just not having me anyway.

So.  Surely there are a few stereotypes that bother you on a really personal basis; what are they?  Of course, I have a few!

That moms who stay at home to raise children are stupid.  There are still people who believe that stay-at-home moms stay at home because they’re too dumb or incapable to get a job elsewhere.  Among the mom-friends I have, that is absolutely false, and it really truly bothers me.  I have never been a girl who would hide my intelligence to attract friends or a mate, and I really get offended when someone questions my intelligence.  No, really, I’m not stupid because I’m a girl or I stay at home with the kids.  No, I don’t have a job because I’m too dumb to work.  I don’t have a job because I am just not cut out for the job pool most of the time, and I believe I can prove it!

I don’t enjoy meetings, reports, or metrics.  Just let me do my damned job and let me do it well, everyone will be happy, and you can go enjoy playing golf or whatever it is you would rather be doing.  I hate meetings *so much* that, at one of the last “all hands” meetings the CIO or CTO (or whatever CIEIO) had called for all of the call center jockeys (and bear in mind we were mostly all computer geeks who had some weird aversion to meetings), I spent the better portion of the week creating a Corporate Buzzwords Bingo game for myself and my friends and we spent the meeting playing and snickering.  Really.  I can’t even go to an Avon sales meeting without causing some sort of trouble (that’s an entry for another day), but for me, meetings have mostly been giant pep-rallies (usually without the pep), or scare tactics, or a way to show off new corporate language or an excuse to get catering.  If you’re going to pay me to work, please, let me work and leave me alone.  I’m also bad at funerals, because my mind starts to wander, then I get the giggles, then I look disrespectful.  I can’t help it if I prefer to think of the deceased in happier times; it’s a whole lot more fun than being grief-stricken.  Case in point:  A few weeks ago we attended the funeral of my best friend’s mother-in-law.  She had been preceded in death by her husband.  Someone was speaking about how they were now united in Heaven, as angels watching down over us.  And I started giggling.  You see, the husband was a tall man (compared to me – I’m 5’3!), and rotund.  He was usually a jolly man, and played Santa every year.  He had a beautiful, authentic-looking suit and I’m pretty sure he didn’t pad it!  Anyway, I suddenly pictured in my mind this jolly man as an angel: wearing nothing but a tiny cloth diaper and fluttering around on teeny-tiny wings that were ill-fitting for a man of his stature.  I shared this with my friend’s husband, as this was his father, and he said that he could see his father dressing up like that.  And at the funeral prior, for the mother of an old college friend, everyone kept talking about how they lost this woman.  The first thing that always comes to my mind when someone says they’ve lost someone is that they’re wandering around the local Wal-Mart, waiting for someone to call them to the service desk.  Or maybe their feet are poking out of some lost-and-found box somewhere. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^ is why I don’t have a job, folks.  Not because I’m a stupid moron who couldn’t perform on the job even if I had special super job-performing powers. 

I also have a hard time being a female techie.  It has, for so long, been a male-dominated profession (and really, it still is!) that people can’t fathom a female knowing much at all about technology.  I can’t handle that.  I’m not a hardware guru by any means: I couldn’t tell you the difference between DIMM and SDRAM chips or SATA and EIDE hard drives, but I know how to get that information, and I know how to translate it into something almost anyone would understand.  Craig’s the hardware guy, and gets into those details.  Don’t get me wrong, I know my fair share about hardware, but I’m more of a software, documentation, and training kind of girl.  I can set up new computers, troubleshoot software problems, teach you how to use it, and I’ve even built my own PC from the ground up.  I get excited when the Microcenter flyer comes in, and even more excited when we get to go there!  I went with my parents to help them purchase new computers earlier in the week and I was quite possibly more excited than them.  I enjoy researching new problems, technology, and information.  I am also a girl.  One time, several years ago, we went into a computer store to pick something up for myself, and to assist a friend who was looking for something.  The sales-dude bypassed *me* and headed straight to Craig.  I was fuming mad and complained to the corporate offices.  *I* was the one in looking for something, with money earned from *my* business!  I knew exactly what I wanted but didn’t know where to find it.  I admit that Craig knows an awful lot more than me about a whole lot of computer stuff, but that’s not to say I don’t know anything, either.  I know plenty of women in the IT field who are every bit as knowledgeable as their male counterparts, but because of gender, they’re often given short shrift.  Of course, then I start thinking about gender inequality in the workplace in general, and I get even angrier.  Why is it that I don’t work for someone else again? 

So what stereotypes really personally affect you?  What sets your blood to boiling?  And are you interested in going to a meeting with me someday? 

I got to meet lilms-sassy!  She came over today so I could turn her into a new KC Freecycle moderator.  How many times have we tried this?  She brought her two little daughters, who are both adorable and disgusting, just like Melena.  Thanks for coming over, we had fun and it was great to finally meet you!!