Lake Ridge is a strange place. It sprang up as a suburb of Washington, DC at a time when suburbs were springing up and successful yuppies saw the hills and trees and single through-street as a blessing compared to the metaphorical constipation of the nation's capital (or Capitol, as the case may be). In the time since its birth, Lake Ridge has grown by leaps and bounds, removing its hills and trees and stubbornly reaffirming the beauty of its bumper to bumper single through-street.
Another startling phenomenon of the community finds its roots in Lake Ridge's roots: coming of age in an age where a "car in every backyard" meant one to stay at home in the backyard while the master and the mistress took to the roads for their separate and lengthy commutes, Lake Ridge was built for cars. As the world goes green, Lake Ridge recycles and buys organic food and insists that walking is for exercise and "Mexicans" (mostly from El Salvador). Public transit? The community kindly looks the other way as business men and military personnel board the commuter bus, ignores the local bus that spread from Woodbridge, and wonders when MetroRail will extend to Potomac Mills.
Because the only way to get anywhere in Lake Ridge (especially if one happens to be white) is a car, motorists do not know how to react when they see a pedestrian, even if she is headed towards, or waiting at, a bus stop. Struck by this unusual sight, drivers lose control of their hands, flailing them about until they make contact with the horn. The sound brings them to their senses again as they pass the pedestrian, and they carry safely on their way.
At least, this is the only reason I can discern as to why a young woman in a business dress would have such an experience. After all, we live in a post-feminist world where men view women as equals and do not objectify them. By some evaluations, sexism has gone the way of racism and the Kennedy half dollar, views that are only exacerbated by a few back-sassing women who refuse to see any changes in the female situation since we won the vote in 1920. The reality is, we've grown in leaps and bounds -- but as long as women still get honked at multiple times in the 30 seconds they stand at a bus stop near the single through-street of a D.C. suburb, we still have some distance to go.
It's a good thing I know some really quality men, or I might lose hope for this world.
Hahahaha great satire. It really is troubling how you can't survive in the DC suburbs without a car.
ReplyDeleteCities can handle the sight of female pedestrians, though. I don't think I was ever honked at when I walked home from my St. Louis bus stop. I did have some interesting encounters with male bus passengers, but that's another story ;-)