I'm not sure if I'd call it sexual harrassment.
The ass slap happened to me in my teens, so did the drag queen eye wink. Both were on a street at night. Not at my job.
I work in a video store which has a larger than usual gay customer base. I have a lot of regulars and a lot of new faces. (They don't know me all that well and I don't express frustration when they try to get a rise out of me). I have one gay couple (older dudes in their late 40's) who are great. They are not flaming, they don't wear gay on their forehead whatsoever. I don't agree with their lifestyle, but I certainly don't have any personal issues with them. Then I have about 4 lesbian couple regulars, who look like dykes but don't act like men. In fact if they were not always with their partner then I would just write them off as ugly women, not dykes.
Then, there are the young flaming queers. One dude is always asking me why I don't have a girlfriend (wink wink nudge nudge..right?) Other ones always give me this hardcore stare down while asking me stupid f'in questions like "what did you do this weekend" with a funny little smirk on their faces. I had one guy, this was the closest I had to feeling sexually harrassed at my work, keep asking me to show him good movies (leave the counter and search the store with him), he would stand close to me and shit and it made me feel really uncomfortable.
Maybe I'm just being parinoid... But From my expierince the most friendly customers are always the gays, especially the young gays, they seem so interested in my business. The older gays are more settle down and act like other customers. But the young ones are very personal and talkative and the body language is all there.
You ever see a gay pride parade? IT's filled with gay men under the age of 30. Gay 40 year olds have gotten over themselves and don't give a shit any more, the younger ones are all like "i'm gay and young, I'm a hero in my community for showing it and I love my boyfriend yay!" Those are the guys that freak me out.
Obviously my video store is not some kind of gay parlor, it's filled with every body. But I've worked here for a year now (part time during school, full time in summer) and I've noticed certain trends in customers.
OFF TOPIC
Other things I've notice - The amount of interacial dating/marriage in Vancouver. NO joke, 1/3 couples is a white dude with some asian chick! Working the service industry really gives you a good feel for the community you live in. And the world in general. Last weekend was the Jazz festival, all the Amerians that have places up here came up for hte weekend. I signed up about 4 people from the states (unusual) to become members of my store. The 4th person I signed up showed me here California license. I said "you're like the 4th American to sign up this weekend, are you here for the festival" She smiled and said "we're not all bad, hahaaha". Wtf? So if I avoided the media, from that experience I could conclude that Americans, some of them, harbor guilt over the war. I've also had super patriotic americans sign up too. One guy kept laughing at our selection, costs, and rental period, he was being loud and obnoxious. "back in Arizona we ge movies for half the cost, twice the selection and 3 times the rental period". "These Canadian prices are for the dogs" What a goof huh? I told him he should go back to Arizona then to rent his movies, he gave me a terrible look and under his breath said "good one store clerk". The store clerk bit hurt, everyone thinks i"m some kind of fuck up for working here, i just know it.
Your idea of it being a defense mechanism is actually a pretty good theory, did you come up with that on your own?
This post has been edited by Jordan: 07 July 2005 - 06:05 AM
Oh SMEG. What the smeggity smegs has smeggins done? He smeggin killed me. - Lister of Smeg, space bum