Every man for him- or herself

Here's what annoys me about men -- and I use that term loosely to mean "people with male sex parts". Let's say you're out with your friends and there are guys there and you happen to be female. Let's say your friends -- who can be bitchy and combative when they want to be -- notice that the "guys" present (and I even use THAT term loosely because these are BOYS if anything and maybe not even that) are in the midst of arguing with you about something that you, as a female, are not expected to know anything about -- say sports, or music, or something involving testosterone. Anyway, you stand up for yourself, because you're smart, you know you have a point, you know what you're talking about. And he's pissed.

When no one else is around this guy does what all "guys" do. He waits for his chance to find the one thing that is wrong with you --- maybe you're fat, maybe you're gawky, maybe you have a big nose, maybe you're just a girl and therefore the term "bitch" will suffice. And he throws it at you. He throws it at you like a dart. Because he KNOWS that you will lose it. You are female after all. You are prone to emotional outbreaks. You will tell him where to go and in front of everyone. And you will cry. And you will end the night embarassed because just GUESS what you're friends are gonna do? They're gonna tell you they didn't hear it so they don't know he said it. They're gonna say you're embarassing them. They're gonna ask you to calm down before you get kicked out.

Here's my problem. If my friend -- male or female -- told me that someone I barely knew, someone who wasn't related to me or didn't drop everything everytime I got dumped or needed someone to walk my dog -- if that someone I barely knew called my FRIEND anything that made them so upset they were literally screaming in public, there would be no question. I WOULD KICK THEIR ASS. Because you do not make my friends cry in public. You do not in my presence call my friend a liar.

I am going to break myself of that habit. I am going to become the kind of friend (and relative) that my friends and relatives have become. I am going to turn off that knee jerk loyalty that makes me actually angry on their part. And I'm going to just go about my life not caring what people do to them. Because apparently it's every man for him- or herself.