Jane

I live in the UK where a women was on the radio last week claimed that there’s no sexism in the UK anymore because gender equality is enshrined into law….I hope she’s reading right now.

Today, whilst driving to the shops there I was involved in an extremely minor traffic incident travelling (a minor scrape at 5mph) on the way into the underground car park. The other driver followed me in, I parked up where there were a number of spaces expecting him to park next to me in order to review the damage to determine if it needed to be an insurance job; he didn’t and instead parked across the way.

I got out to review the damage (minor scratches that will polish out) he checked his car out then came over to look at mine as started to offer my details for the insurance he challenged me and accused me of being reckless so I asked why he was parked on a no parking zone in an oversized vehicle, then he flipped and completely changed his attitude and he started pacing up and down screaming ‘people like you should not be driving, you’re the ones that cause all the trouble and shouldn’t be allowed on the road’ the insinuation being that ‘people like you’ meaning ‘women’.

He became increasingly aggressive continuing with saying that I was stupid and incompetent because I was a women, that not only did I not need to retake my driving test, I shouldn’t be allowed to drive at all. It was at this point I realised I was alone, in an unlit underground car park albeit in the middle of the day with an increasingly aggressive well built older man all because I was involved in a minor traffic accident that he’d already admitted caused no damage to his car. Thankfully as I started to think about how to escape another lady appeared and stood between us and asked me if I was ok and started to talk directly to me ignoring him, when we removed the attention from him he moved on after a little bit more verbal abuse.

I explained to her what had happened she laughed and said ‘men like that usually get aggressive because the you’re right and you called him out on it; he was mentally transferring his fault onto you because he could not even consider being wrong to a group in society that he hates’ and she was right; because I was one born one of the 52% he considered the lesser sex, that I had correctly challenged him he could only resort to aggressive, abusive behaviour.

I still needed my shopping but I could not risk him coming back with others to damage me or my car so I drove off in floods of tears and sat in the next car park until I pulled myself together. I got my shopping came home, all I want now is a large G&T but I’m paranoid he’s arrogant enough to call the police and I just can’t risk it. So, on the last day of my week off from work I am sitting on my sofa watching every car come past drinking tea until 5 until I can have a glass of something stronger to calm my nerves and to raise a toast to that women who was just passing by but chose to get involved and made me appreciate that I did not bring this on myself.