SAME DAY:

White cis het male cashier: What the hell.

White cis het female cashier: This is bullshit. People need to get over themselves.

*White cis het male cashier looks out over counter at line-up of customers… eyes fall on two folks whose genders he reads/assumes*

White cis het male cashier: Hey ladies…

*White cis het male cashier makes eye contact with me. I glare, try not to implode/explode, seethe with rage and disgust.*

—————————-

Two days later I’m still fucking seething. For one thing, WHY is it so fucking difficult for people to just change their language just a little bit. I mean, I KNOW why — because to change their language would be to actually acknowledge and respect difference, and doing so would totally jeopardize the identities these people have built for themselves, but HOLY FUCK. I think that on-campus staff in particular have a huge influence on student/customer/public behaviour… if folks see staff saying/doing damaging, heteronormative, trans-antagonistic behaviour, that is huge. I wish I’d had it in me to ask this person for his name, but either way I’m still going to report him. <— in regards to this last sentence, I KNOW that it’s shit to rely on the punitive measures that might be taken by campus authorities, but I don’t know how to spark some kind of community-based responsibility/accountability in this scenario…

sigh.

Thanks for listening Tumblr.