Sunday, April 01, 2007

Strange strangers

One of the great things about living in a big city is the running commentary you receive from complete strangers. They vary greatly in substance, yet little in eloquence.

For example, this morning I left my apartment to go to Starbucks, when I beheld an old homeless lady ahead of me mumbling nonsensically. As I walked right by her, I heard her say something scathingly to me that ended with the words ringing in my ear, "you damn bitch." I continued to walk, and came to a traffic light that just turned yellow, which I always interpret to mean "run before the light turns red." As I ran across the street, an irate cab driver leaned on his horn at me for about ten straight seconds (his light was also yellow). I held my hand up as I ran in front of his car and he leaned out of his window to inform me that I was a "fucking bitch."

All of this occurred in the span of ten minutes.

Of course, I consider these comments with the other commentary from complete strangers, the kind that any female with two legs and a pulse will receive walking down the street in a large city, ranging from "How you doing, sexy?" to "Damn girl I wanna eat you up!"

What is it about the city that disinhibits people to be so candid? Is it the close quarters that lead to an openness that allows bums and cab drivers and construction workers to comment on whether you're a bitch or damn fine? Perhaps the excess carbon monoxide from all the traffic has an effect on people's social boundaries. It's a very interesting phenomenon, one that I suspect doesn't exist in suburbs or small towns.

At any rate, while I grow more and more desnsensitized to the randomness of strangers, I will be rest assured that I'm somewhere between a fucking bitch and a sexy fine thing.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it happens more in NYC because people hide behind their "anonymity". They think they'll never see you again, so why not be frank?

Yellow Lawyer, a former NYC resident

Yellow Gal said...

While NYC is perhaps the most extreme, I'm guessing that most large cities have their share of unfriendly and way-too-friendly strangers. It's not as bad where you are, I presume? I suppose the larger the city, the more anonymous and therefore more "open" people are.

Anonymous said...

Since I'm a guy, I don't get any catcalls, so I can't attest to that. I think it's less common here but I have been called an ugly motherf**ker by a homeless woman for no reason (at least I keep telling myself it was for no reason).

A friend was telling me that he saw someone punch a woman in the kidney in the subway cuz the subway was too crowded. It wasn't a hard punch but it surprised the woman, more than it hurt her.

Yellow lawyer

 
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