“Ya beeeeps!” he reiterated as he turned the ignition. It was 5.30am.
“Beeeeeeep you, ZZ,” came a voice from the back of the bus, followed by a chorus of more of the same. “You old beeeeeepedy beeeeep beeeep beeeep!”
So began another day at the male-dominated mines.
The funny thing about this day, though, was that ZZ hadn’t noticed I was on the bus – and the boys didn’t tell him. He had just returned from holidays and was in fine form. Driving to site he gave the lads a mighty serve. The insults and expletives amplified beyond anything I have ever heard as we bumped along and thus I could tell he was a much revered character amongst the crew. Laughing and pushing we all eventually piled off and went to work.
About two hours later there was a quiet knock at my office door.
“I’m so, so sorry,” ZZ slunk in, hardhat in hand, eyes wide. “If I had known you were on the bus this morning I never would have spoken like that. I thought it was just the boys, you know. I’m so embarrassed. Can you forgive me?” He looked like a big-eyed Puss in Boots crossed with Bad Santa.
“Don’t worry about it, baby,” I soothed, taking the opportunity to introduce myself. “You know I’m used to it working around here."
“We boys should watch ourselves though,” he continued to implore. “It’s not right.”
“You boys are fine,” I countered. “You made me laugh. Besides, I’m sure I’ve heard much worse”. (I hadn’t).
ZZ looked relieved. “Thank you,” he said, flashing a sheepish smile amongst his lengthy locks. “I’ll do better next time”.
This is not the first time this sort of thing has happened since I arrived here. I’ll be sitting around with the crew and the conversation will turn a little unsavoury or sexist (or both if someone has just returned from Thailand) and all the boys will laugh and carry on – and then remember I am there. This sparks a brief horrified silence before they all look at the wall or the ground, mumbling sorry, sorry, sorry. It’s hilarious! In fact, sometimes I purposely stay quiet in order to further my education.
Nevertheless, to be honest, I have been surprised and a little bit shocked by some of the stuff they come up with. The way they talk about the pretty young admin girls is a bit of a worry – though I know they do it more to one up each other in their own pecking order than to be truly derogatory. It also makes me realise how old I am that, at 41, I have enough worldly wisdom to be able to just chuckle along and let it wash over me. I know that out of feminine earshot men have carried on like this since the dawn of time and will continue to do so no matter what women do or say. Very occasionally I will counteract with a pithy male putdown, but mostly I just shrewdly smile and shake my head. They know that I know that at home their wives rule the roost.
1 comments:
Happened to me many times. I mean, suddenly remembering that there are women in the room >.< But as you mentioned, this blokey talk is mostly for the benefits of the men themselves. After all, our main way of showing affection and respect is insulting each other :P
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