What not to do... if you're a woman

I had an awesome afternoon. I had to go to go to a 2 1/2 hour client meeting, the first half-hour of which was spent raking me over the coals. Which was super fun, lemme tell you.

It's not worth going into what I did wrong. That would involve explaining exactly what it is I do for a living, and then going on to explain the intricacies of my working relationships with various travel professionals... You're asleep already, aren't you?

The point is I pissed someone off. Basically, I stood up for myself when a bully pushed me in the schoolyard. And now I'm paying for it. The bully in question is of no consequence in the grand scheme of things to me or anyone else whose job isn't based on kissing the wrong asses... and often. Even though he started the verbal shoving match, I'm in the wrong because my client says so. Because to men of a certain age and supposed pedigree, being "pushed too far" can be accomplished with any degree of pushing when it is done by a female. That's what it came down to. I was too young, too female and too smart, frankly, to be allowed to talk to him that way, no matter what he said to provoke me.

The moral of this tale, specifically to be taken seriously by any young, smart, upwardly mobile women who may be reading this? Men suck. Especially middle-aged white men. There have been some exceptions throughout history -- Elvis, Bill Clinton, my Uncle Frank. But by and large, middle-aged white men as a demographic SUCK ASS. And NOT in the good way.