DownwiththeShip

ah, how could I forget the best one

The sequence of events is a little jumbled in the telling above. The actual chastising from the teacher came days before the woman’s thesis, during a practice run of her presentation. This was not a spur-of-the-moment thing where she just whipped off her clothes for the sake of being angry. Chai took the time to think things through before deciding this was the way she wanted to protest. She used critical thinking and level-headedness to decide instead of becoming volatile and aggressive, she would choose non-violent protest. 

I just don’t like the way the story’s being told by others because it makes her come across as “overly-emotional” and “erratic” (as women often do in the media, because it’s easier to attribute extreme action to “hysteria”), whereas in actual news reports, she had time to think about her decision and choose the best way to handle what happened to her. 

Sources: 

New York Post

CBS

And like I’m like. Oh great, a horse themed gender reveal party.

complete with like … just truly excessive foods and of course, themed cocktails

and this sign which like… the fragility of like *not* italicizing the word ‘colt’. Like imagine being this weird abt gender

with like, a bucket that eventually ‘revealed’ the gender

But like… the picture that really just completely undid me, for this party which surely was more money than many weddings -

I worked as a dishwasher at a dorm kitchen when I was in college. Dishwashing is usually called an “unskilled” job, but someone had to train me to load the machine, how to run it, and what to do with the plates and things when they were clean, and I needed to learn how to do this efficiently so that the kitchen didn’t run out of plates during mealtimes. All of those things were skills I had to learn.

I worked on a sandwich line for a summer when I was in college. Food service is usually called an “unskilled” job, but someone had to train me how to make the sandwiches, how to prepare the salads, and how to prepare the desserts. I had to learn how to work with the folks in the prep kitchen, with the wait staff, and with the other people on my line. I had to be trained how to open and close, because sometimes I would get those shifts. I had to learn how to work quickly and efficiently so that our customers would get their meals in a timely manner, and so that everything was prepped and clean for the next shift. All of those things were skills I had to learn.

That whole “special skills” thing? It’s classist and probably racist.

Unskilled jobs are poorly paid because the employers can get away with it, and that’s pretty much the whole reason. They are permitted by our capitalist society to exploit workers, especially those workers who are most disadvantaged.

“Unskilled” workers make our food, take care of our kids and our elders, stock our grocery store shelves, clean the spaces we use, and do hundreds of other things that make our lives easier. “Unskilled” jobs require a fuckton of physical labor. Don’t those things merit good compensation?

When I sorted bills for my university, I got paid really well cause while I was only part-time, the job itself is not deemed “unskilled”. Despite me literally just sorting stuff by numbers. Look at a number, put it between other numbers. All day every day. I even was allowed to have as much coffee and tea as I liked from the office kitchen for free.

When I worked for Subway for a month, I had to learn within 2 hours:

exactly where and how to cut the bread to make both sides equal

what sauce to recommend with what topping

how much topping to scoop per half

what all the breads, toppings and stuff are called and being able to rattle them down on command

how to use three different vegetable cutters

how to use their oven (that thing has like 9 buttons that all do different shit and none of the buttons got ANY symbol or word on it, all are just black)

what the day’s special was for every day

what the price for stuff was without looking at the sign or being at the cash register

when to change the gloves (all the time, for every little shit)

I also had to go to a 2 hour food sanitary training before hand to give me a certificate so I was even allowed to work at Subways.

You give them an apologetic look, maybe a smile or a wince or whatever you think you can pull off, and you say, "I have some personal business that I have to take care of." And if they STILL press, tell them, "I'd rather not talk about it."

You don't need to tell them that your personal business is sitting in front of your laptop surfing youtube while bing eating ice cream. You don't need to give them all your personal life story. You don't need to come up with a reason to have time off to rest, or to say No. They are not entitled to it, and they will only use it to try and talk you into doing more work than you want to.