Little Bit of Rage

I read something this morning on Twitter that almost sent me into a violent rage. And I'm not exaggerating.

"@tedvan LAS MUJERES NO TIENE DERECHO A OPINAR DE FUTBOL,..LO SUYO ES LA MODA"

This idiot actually wrote: "Women have no right to have an opinion about soccer, their thing is fashion."

UMMMMM .... wtf? wtf wtf wtf wtf

I want to scream every possible obscenity at this person right now. THIS is probably my biggest problem with Argentina. (Not to say that there aren't men who think like this in America, or other countries in the world). These extremely defined gender roles are what keep people from advancing. How on Earth is a girl who loves sports supposed to feel if she hears all around that there is something inherently wrong about her?

I would love to have the US Womens Soccer team beat this guy up. Right, I'm a girl, so I'm supposed to LOVE fashion and know all about designers and what their clothes are like and so on. Sure, men and women are very different and lots fall into broad gender stereotypes or traits. But it's not black and white, people. Just because you're a guy doesn't mean you have to love eating steak and playing sports and looking at blonde bimbos with huge boobs. And just because you're a woman doesn't mean you have to love the color pink, talk only about fashion and gossip magazines and limit yourself to role of caretaker/homemaker. Apparently there's no room for any overlap - I can't be a girly girl who also happens to love sports, for example.

What bothers me is that these sentiments are echoed among young people here. I feel like if some crazy old man who grew up in another time, another generation, said these things, I would still be angry but not as surprised. But to hear that men my age - my peers - spend their time propagating such ideas ... leaves me speechless.

My friend Emily got into a big fight with her boyfriend's friend one evening while they were all watching a soccer game on tv. The friend actually had the gall to say that women shouldn't watch sports or drink beer ... WHILE my friend was watching the game on tv with a beer in her hand !!!

I could ramble on about this for millions more paragraphs, so I will stop. Having been raised in America among a generation that was told we could do anything we put our mind to ... it's just quite eye opening to realize that we are the lucky ones, not held back by our own family and friends just because we have two X chromosomes.