I Think I'm a Feminist Now?

I gotta start this blog with a little self-reflection.

I should've taken a picture of the sign that I'm about to go in on; it would've really helped this blog. Didn't get a pic; that's on me. I fucked up. 

 I was just so pissed that I totally forgot to snap a photo. 

This story actually begins yesterday when I was substitute teaching.

​During 3rd period my class was in one of the computer labs where they were doing research for a project. (Aka I got paid to sit in the corner and pretend to care if kids were doing their work)

The phone rings.

Honestly even after subbing like 20+ times I still get wicked nervous every time the phone rings. Whenever I pick up it's so awkward (shocker) I just don't know if I should say like "Mr/Mrs. ________'s room. This is Mr. M******" or if I should just be like "This is Mr. M*********". 

It's stressful af. Plus whenever the phone rings I just always assume it's for something bad which makes me even more nervous. I'm thinking either a kid fucked up or I fucked up. Nobody ever calls the sub to just be like "oh Ryan just wanted to let you know you're doing a great job!"

So I get the call and the lady says "Ryan, I have some bad news for you"

Now I feel fucking terrified. I'm thinking I did something to get fired or like my mom or dad just died. I said "what's wrong?" the lady asked if I drive a red Jeep, which I do then she told me I have a flat tire. I was relieved that I wasn't in trouble, but at the same time I was now freaking out about how to handle this situation while I was working.  And I appreciate the heads up so I could get it fixed before the school day ended, but I can't lie I was kind of weirded out. I still don't know how they knew it was my car, but I'm just making this blog longer with details that don't really matter.

But seriously how did they know?

Fast forward to today. Since I had a flat, and my front tires are so bald that you'd think they're on chemo, it was finally time to bite the bullet and get four new tires.

I had to go all the way up to beautiful North Dartmouth to hit up Sears for some new rubber. They told me it was going to be a few hours so I just walked over to the mall to pass the time.

I was hoping I could just time it perfectly and catch a movie while I waited, I really need to see Get Out to see if all the hype is justified, but unfortunately for me at like 11 am nothing was playing yet. Kinda shocked by that, considering how many people were at the mall in North Dartmouth on a fucking Tuesday morning. I know as a substitute teacher/pizza man/aspiring blogger I might not have room to say this but seriously does anybody in that town have a fucking job?

At this point I figure I'll just walk around and hope they finish asap as possible. 

Now that a movie was out of the question and I already crushed some Auntie Anne's (if you go to a mall and don't get Auntie Anne's did you even really go?) I thought I could do the thing I usually hit up the Warwick Mall to do.

Get my eyebrows threaded.

Make fun of me if you want, but I know a lot of dudes (maaaaybe 5) who do it so I'm not alone here.

Anyways, I see there is a salon in this shit hole of a mall that does threading and waxing. I think to myself, at least I can threaded up while I'm waiting for my tires. Kill two birds with one stone. I check out the price board and it says "Threading $10"

I think to myself. "Perfect, that's a reasonable price, same as Warwick Mall" and as I'm about to walk in to pay $10 to hold back tears for 5-15 minutes while some Asian lady talking shit to her coworkers about how I'm gonna break the chair in her native tongue using dental floss to make my eyebrows less ugly. Before I get an opportunity for that to happen I see directly below "Men's  threading $15". I absolutely lose my shit (internally, I'm not a make a scene guy)

Like how fucked up is that?  Why should I have to pay $5 more to get my eyebrows done just because I'm a guy? I mean $15 bucks is outrageous for threading, but it's more the principle of the situation than anything. If it was $1 v $6 I'd be mad too. Why should men need to pay more for the same service? I already have to deal with all the guilt the media says I should feel for being a straight white man in America. Now I'm gonna get charged more for being a dude?

It's absolutely bullshit. 

Now I'm gonna be honest for a second here, while I think a lot of the "social injustices" people care about are important, I really never gave a shit. Call me an ass hole, privileged or whatever but I'm just being honest. 

I just don't really care about anything.  I care about like 10 things: my friends, my family, Boston sports, pizza, beer, music, and hopefully getting laid again someday. See I couldn't' even think of 10.. I just am so laid back that I really don't care about things that that doesn't directly impact me or the people I care about. Like I don't care about the Milwaukee Brewers because I'm a Red Sox fan. I didn't really care about inequality between genders because I usually was on the right side of things. It's basically the same thing.

Well now that I'm on the other side and got a taste of what you deal with,  I totally am with you ladies. Does this make me a feminist? I think so. I already don't shave my legs.

Get mad at me for taking this long if you want, but honestly you should be happy to have me. Because when I care about something I care hard. I'm all in. I've always thought women should get paid the same as men, but now I'm all for things costing the the same for men and women as well. Why should women's razors cost more than men's? Why should dude's have to pay more to get their eyebrows done? In 2017 we should be better than that.

Plus if we're being honest most people only care about things once they impact them firsthand. Do you think Magic Johnson would give two shits about AIDS research if he didn't have it? Probably not. If Michael J. Fox never got Parkinson's do you think he would've ever thought twice about it? Most people don't care about random diseases until it impacts them. When a celebrity starts a foundation for something random it's usually because someone they love has it. Like nobody cares about cystic fibrosis unless they or someone close them has it. 
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That's basically how I feel here. I never truly understood how fucked up gender inequality is until I witnessed it firsthand. I'm sorry ladies for ever laughing at you. Now I get how you feel when you get mistreated financially just because you're a girl. It's fucked up and not how life should go. 

I still don't get the logic behind making it 50% more expensive for men. Are you assuming we had more hair? You can't do that in 2017. If anything it should be cheaper to get threaded if you're a dude because the demand is lower,  try to get more customers. Like a promotion. I feel like there is still a stigma as a male to get your eyebrows threaded, so they should be making it cheaper for guys to get more male costumers. I don't know I didn't go to business school but that seems like it makes sense to me. But I'm not even asking for that because it goes against my entire theme of this blog, it should be the same for everybody. 

I feel like I need to pull a Pretty Woman/Dwight at the Steamtown mall to try to teach them a lesson. I think I should go dressed as a girl and try to get it for $10. I mean I already have the long hair and boobs.