second PSA of the day!

As I strike out into the world of farming for myself, I come up again and again against fucking sexist bullshit that makes me wanna puke. There are the people I am talking to about business matters who say, "So, you are a girl farmer, huh?" And I want to say something like "Well ... in the sense that most dairy cows are girls, um, yeah. Not human girls though, I think that's probably illegal." Or the very nice man from the extension office I was speaking to about land acquisition who, when I asked what advice he had for landless upstart farmers he said "Find someone with a farm and marry him." Been there. Done that.

*Sigh*

And then there are the truly clueless, like the young man I went to see on Friday. He had some heifers for sale and I drove entirely too far to go look at them. And the dude was a total jackass to me, sexually harassing me, asking me rude questions and telling me about his genitals. This only went on for as long as it took for me to walk back to my car and get in and say "Well, thank you, bye!" and he said "I hope I didn't offend you! did I?" And I said, "Well, would you have said those same things to a man who came to look at your heifers?" "No, that's gross," he said. "Exactly."

So look, by the time you are on the receiving end of that sort of crap, I feel like the chances of changing anyone's perception are pretty slim. But if, maybe, your friend is telling you a story that you recognize as sexist and offensive, you could, you know, mention that to him (or her I guess should the case arise). Or if you notice your teenage child exhibiting behaviour that is way out of line, people he's gonna interact with when he's a grownup would totally appreciate you smacking him now so that we don't have to spend our entire trip home fantasizing about running him over with a tractor later.