Don’t call me ‘babe’ on the bus, please

February 1, 2012 | 49 notes

In the past week I’ve been to the cinema twice (The Artist, and The Descendants – both fairly good), stocked up my fridge (meatballs and pizza on the menu this week) and arranged to catch up with friends. Oh and I’ve been called “an irate woman”, “a daft woman”, a “silly, silly woman” told I “must look like the old back of a bus”, to “Get a life!” and that “I need an operation, to remove the chip from [my] shoulder” – all by people I don’t know and have never met.

What is my crime? Just politely contacting my local bus company to let them know that I don’t like it when their bus drivers use terms such as “love”, “darling” and “babe”. I pointed out that I generally find their drivers friendly and courteous but that when some of them use that language I find it demeaning. I wasn’t angry, I didn’t ask to make a formal complaint, I wasn’t trying to get anyone into trouble, I’m not trying to get anyone fired, I didn’t threaten legal action – I just thought they might like to know how the actions of some of their staff made me feel.

Read what happened next here

• Tags:
• feminism