My job requires me to be very technical. Day in and day out I am engrossed in facts, figures, programs, technical discussion, calculations etc. I am in the job where 95% is dominated by the opposite sex and that means ego plays are predominant. I have been doing this for years and years. When I am done with the day, normally I was so mentally and physically exhausted. So when I go somewhere else, I don’t certainly want to talk about anything intelligent, work, get into argument or talk anything serious. I don’t really talk about work with my husband, we go home automatically conversations will not include work. Not his, not mine. I played with my children and watched the Entertainment Channel which is my favourite channel on Astro. Admiring the actresses and singers. Their beauty and wealth. Whatever they have and I don’t have. Otherwise I watched the CSI, House, Ghost Whisperer and equivalent series.
When I go out with female friends we talk about local light gossips, clothes, belts, shoes, handbags, hair, diet, all the things that some people say “bimbos” talk about. I don’t buy Times, Economists, Newsweek, Oil&Gas Journals, etc, even though sometimes I receive them free. I buy HELLO, PEOPLE, JELITA, HOT, HER WORLD and the likes and whenever I found any tabloids, I really love to read. This is my way to relax my mind. To take my mind to another fun world temporarily. This is also my check and balance between being a nerd and an attractive person. Who says a technical person must be looking professional at all times, unexciting, unwomanly and nerdy.
Once I met a woman at a very highly regarded dinner event. She’s a wife of somebody who was invited to the function. Since she was sitting next to me at the table, I tried to start a conversation. She told me she didn’t like to talk about trivials like shoes, handbags, and gossips like other women, she considered it boring and stupid. Her remark sort of stunted me for a second.
Okay, if you talk about that kind of things day in and day out maybe there’s something wrong with you or you are in the industry where that kind of thing is important. But I was like thinking, I just want to have some fun time here. Well if you don’t want to talk about trivials would you understand if I open discussion on my professional expertise. I could join the men in their conversation and left you out but I was trying to be a mere woman here.
It seems that some woman potray status by certain definition. I am not like that. I just want to be respected at work but outside work I just want to be a person, an attractive, interesting and friendly one.
