When Starbucks is a Hate Crime Scene
Sweat-shaming is when someone points out your sweatiness as a way to signal disapproval. Like its counterparts, slut-shaming and fat-shaming, sweat-shaming is aimed mainly at women, who are actually not supposed to sweat at all.
Well, it’s been a while since we’ve had a classic Guardian sentence, let alone a reminder of just how many brickbats and indignities our brave feminists must endure. The sentences above are courtesy of Ms Amy Roe, who, as you’ll see, has been terribly violated (and is therefore heroic and righteous in her ire).
Let the full horror of the episode wash over you:
I was ordering coffee when I noticed a well-dressed woman staring at me. “You look like you just did a class,” she said, giving me the once-over. I had no idea what she meant so I said nothing. “Or swimming?” she offered, with a tight smile.
Well-dressed. Tight smile. The bitch.
I’d just run 12 miles and the hair sticking out from under my hat was wet. It took me a moment to formulate an answer. “Um, running,” I mumbled finally… Rather than challenge sweat-shaming, I played right into it, conceding that I “sweat a lot.”
Tight-smiling woman is obviously a hired goon of The Patriarchy. Her mission, to stamp on the self-esteem of hitherto fearless Guardian columnists.
And so,
I took the paper cup of drip coffee and hustled past the condiment bar. Screw the half-and-half; I’d drink it black. Once safely inside my car, I threw off my damp running cap and flipped up the hood of my sweatshirt in embarrassment.
Harrowing stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. Ms Roe is what we must henceforth refer to as a sweat-shame survivor.
Happily, however - and despite the misogynist violence of having one’s copious perspiration acknowledged by someone standing next to you, possibly closer than they might wish – Ms Roe’s drama ends on a note of empowerment and feminist defiance:
I’ve got another long run this weekend and afterward, I’m going to sit down with my coffee, all sweaty and transgressive. The stigmas surrounding women’s bodies are powerful, but they’re no match for how powerful I feel after running.
Hear her roar. And fetch towels.
Oh sweet Jesus.
Well, at least she can’t blame the Patriarchy. It was a woman!
What? She can? In the next (paid) article? or in replying to comments?
Way to go!
Must be nice NEVER to lose!
Maybe she should try going home and showering before standing in a queue.
Maybe she should try going home and showering before standing in a queue.
Tsk. I don’t think you fully appreciate the extent of her bravery.
Could someone please explain to me why being a Guardian columnist necessitates turning the most prosaic, one-off events in one’s life into sociological trends?
Why is my comment in bold? I swear David, I’ve not been playing with the HTML again!
I see no bold.
Have you been drinking?
Well, women are special, and naturally, special calls for religious overtones dripping with morality. And because old, mens systems are wrong because mens.
If you view this drivel, notice all the instances of enormous personal enlightenment and the use of forced collective behavior. Because democracy.
Most deleted comments ever in a Grauniad thread?
Most deleted comments ever in a Grauniad thread?
Maybe the moderators are on a caffeine high.
Have you been drinking?
Alas, no. Perhaps you’ve created a “gaslight” blog to drive all your readers insane. How else to explain the constant posts of Guardian quotes and “performance art” ugly naked people?
Perhaps you’ve created a “gaslight” blog to drive all your readers insane.
Now that you’ve uncovered my diabolical plan, I’m afraid you’ll have to be escorted to the correction booth.
[ Tinkles tiny bell, summons henchlesbians. ]
@Ten,
I note in your linked vid the advocacy for shifting from the objective “more” to the subjective “better.” Who decides, then, what is “better?” Me? A collection of worthies? Sadly, it seems “better” always seems to benefit said collection of worthies at the expense of everyone else who have the very objective “less.”
And people wonder why the art of idle conversation is dying and we all stand around sulkily in queues.
Although as someone who does go running I wouldn’t be as anti social as her and go in to a something like a coffee shop to inflict my sell body on everyone.
This comment from ChuckTheChicken gave me a lol, although I suspect it isn’t unique:
https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/11078899
I fully understand this article.
I work in a sewage works. The other day on my way home I fancied a coffee. So, covered in shit, I popped into Starbucks.
While I was waiting for my coffee, a man – it would be a man! – said, “You’re covered in shit”.
I didn’t know what he meant so I said nothing.
“Shit!” he said. “Youre covered in it. And you Smell!”
I was so embarrassed i left my emaciated latte behind and ran out. I had been shit-shamed.
Is there no end to people’s heartlessness?
Shit-shamed is a thing. Or it should be. The other day at work, I had a particularly foul smelling bowel movement. I noticed a man (of course) making a face upon entering the washroom. (To clarify, my bowel movement did take place in the toilet). I was acutely embarrassed because of the odor. But why? Why should I feel any shame for such a natural body function?
#EndFartShamingNow
Cis shitlords…men sweat, women perspire!
I note in your linked vid the advocacy for shifting from the objective “more” to the subjective “better.” Who decides, then, what is “better?” Me? A collection of worthies?
Yup. Begin with a terribly narrow definition of right and good, as if class-forcing, sex and gender privilege, and the contrived, collectivist green lifestyle are God’s only and entirely self evident concerns, and then answer the begged question: By way of collective force, naturally, i.e., Marxism, with said force belonging to the happy virtue-signaller.
Over the last century the right has all but completely capitulated. Time was that coveting and stealing were sins. Now they’re principles and most of the right can’t even identify the philosophical problem.
Classical liberalism: Use it or lose it.
What type of mental strain must these people be under? What with the constant battles against the imaginary forces allied against them. I guess by the same token though they choreograph victories for themselves at the end of each attack so maybe it balances their psyche out.
“Sweat-shaming” SMH
No, “sweat shaming” is more like “Whew! Did somebody let a wet dog in here?”
Men sweat, women perspire. Ladies glisten.
Now see here – when are we going to organize and challenge society’s insidious, juvenile penchant for fart shaming? Even when the dog does it – I get blamed…
Horses Sweat
Men Perspire
Women Glow
Or maybe not.
Tinkles tiny bell, summons henchlesbians.
Can’t even seduce one in order to escape. Thought of all the angles, eh?
My favorite part is that, while the tight-smile lady might indeed be being catty, it’s also entirely possibly she’s just trying to make chit-chat. “You look like you just did a class.” That’s a conversation starter!
I have personally witnessed people reading aggression into perfectly innocuous comments/facial expressions. Our ability to read people isn’t perfect, especially when we have a chip on our shoulder.
Can’t even seduce one in order to escape. Thought of all the angles, eh?
I run a tight ship.
Our precious correspondent blew it – and in the most lesbo-phobic manner possible. That wasn’t a criticism or even a conversation starter…it was a pick up line: What she meant was, “you look sweaty and delicious, can I get a taste of that?” And, being the overly sensitive little lesbian-hater that she is, she felt shamed. When, in reality she was doing the shaming. And now there are two ladies in their cars crying about being shamed. But, alas, only one of them has a Grauniad column to cure that ill.
L.
And now there are two ladies in their cars crying about being shamed. But, alas, only one of them has a Grauniad column to cure that ill.
Heh. That does seem possible. Certainly more credible than the delusions of persecution. Based on Ms Roe’s account of the exchange, I see no obvious reason to suppose that the comment was meant to be hostile.
I run a tight ship.
Yes, but there is that abnormally large air vent which leads to both the control room and the reactor. So we’ve got that going for us, at least.
In other news, Lena Dunham has quit twitter. It wasn’t a “safe space” for her. Well done, Patriarchy!
“Well, at least she can’t blame the Patriarchy. It was a woman!”
The stock explanation is that the patriarchal savage has internalized misogyny by the second-tier victim who kicked the first-tier victim in the head.
Like its counterparts, slut-shaming and fat-shaming, sweat-shaming is aimed mainly at women, who are actually not supposed to sweat at all.
This must be a major issue for athletes such as Serena Williams. How does she cope I wonder?
How does our precious princess decide that sweat-shaming is aimed at women. Does she see loads of sweaty men in public getting nods of approval?
Because my experience is that being sweaty in public is considered poor form. Nothing to do with your
sexgenderapparent gender .Glenfilthie, horses sweat, gentlemen perspire and ladies glow. 🙂
Celina beat you (and me) to it, Fruitbad44.
Sadly, we seem to have fewer gentlemen or ladies about these days though 🙁 .
Ten, on a whim I looked into one of the ‘better’ solutions mentioned in your link.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evergreen_Cooperatives
The laundry was set up with a bunch of loans and grants. Sounds pretty capitalist to me.
The solar power installers are conveniently operating under regulation requiring 25% renewables – hope it stays sunny for them
The ‘highly efficient farm’ is still being designed. And is grant-funded.
Game changing?
Horses sweat
Men perspire
Ladies glow
Guardian columnists drip sanctimony and faux-outrage, and get paid to agonise about it
How would she cope with the baked-beans scene in blazing saddles?
Horses Sweat
Men Perspire
Women Glow
There was a comment by a friend to me and other friends of hers at a dance awhile back . . .
Oh, My, I’m sweating like a pig!
Which got her a very immediate correction by several associates . . . So she edited.
Oh, My, I’m glowing like a pig!
It turns out that there’s a scientific basis for “horses sweat, men perspire, but women merely glow.”
What is a Guardian columnist doing at Starbucks?
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/aug/25/starbucks-palm-oil-campaign-2015-sumofus-consumers-deforestation-commitments
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/apr/21/starbucks-caffe-nero-costa-tesco-ethical-coffee-rankings
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/24/starbucks-toasted-graham-latte-review
I think we must have a Poe.
Oh, for the love of…the Guardianistas’ ultimate plot is revealed: No more idle chitchat, people! When you stand in a line or queue, SHUT UP. No distractions!
There are currently 747 comments following Ms Roe’s article, spread over 15 pages, almost all of which are negative, often mocking. Despite this avalanche of scorn, the moderators have highlighted one comment as the “Guardian pick,” thereby giving the impression of a broadly favourable response. It reads, “This kind of insidious behaviour [i.e., sweat-shaming] is why the world has less women interested in sports and fitness.”
It seems to me there’s a strand of the feminist left that’s determined to make society conform to the formality of a Jane Austen novel. Don’t speak to anybody until you’ve been formally introduced, don’t say anything that might upset a lady, and don’t, for God’s sake, say anything explicitly sexual. Know your place.
Ms Roe is what we must henceforth refer to as a sweat-shame survivor.
That.
Do Guardian writers realize they’re giving the impression that women are emotionally childish?
Do Guardian writers realize they’re giving the impression that women are emotionally childish?
I’m not at all convinced that the typical Guardian columnist is concerned by much beyond their own imagined status in the hand-wringers’ hierarchy. Ours is an age of recreational outrage – with outrage over nothing or next-to-nothing as a kind of social signalling, a kind of cheap grace. But yes, the impression given is not a flattering one.
Does anyone remember “The dullest Blog in the World”?
“Went for a run, got sweaty” would probably have made it on there.
New idea for a TV show:
HCSI: Hate Crime Scene Investigation
With spin offs:
HCSI: San Francisco
HCSI: Islington
HCSI: NUS
Starring Laurie Penny, Owen Jones & ‘Dr’ Jack Monroe
Does anyone remember “The dullest Blog in the World”?
“Went for a run, got sweaty” would probably have made it on there.
There is the twitter account @BoringMilner
I could see “Went for a run..etc” getting on there.
HCSI: Hate Crime Scene Investigation
Heh.
the moderators have highlighted one comment as the “Guardian pick,” . . . “This kind of insidious behaviour [i.e., sweat-shaming] is why the world has less women interested in sports and fitness.”
Do the same moderators explain what exactly are “less women”?
I did not click through to the “article”. Long ago, I was a reader of the Manchester Guardian, and try not to give “The Guardian” the time of day.
Meanwhile, in the Washington Post:
Maybe someone should take Ms Roe to one side and have a quiet word.
“Maybe I’m hypersensitive,” Roe said.
Snork!
“but that’s the chance you take”
Amy Roe’s Risk/Reward Analysis of whether to submit article for publication
Risk: Gets published and I look like a complete ass to the overwhelming majority of people, most of whom I don’t know
Reward: Article is published and despite ridicule from anonymous internet commenters, I receive validation and elevated status from my crazy victim-type PC friends and acquaintances.
Not even a close call.
validation and elevated status from my crazy victim-type PC friends and acquaintances.
Again, social signalling, cheap grace.
Huh, in P&P, the wonderful Elizabeth Bennet works up a sweat on her way to see her ill sister, Jane, and Mr. Darcy admires her for it. Even Jane Austen would have thought this Guardianista twit was a twit.
Even Jane Austen would have thought this Guardianista twit was a twit.
In a 21st century version of P&P, she would likely be Elizabeth’s foolish younger sister and would bring shame on her family by eloping with a performance artist
“Like its counterparts, slut-shaming and fat-shaming, sweat-shaming is aimed mainly at women, who are actually not supposed to sweat at all.”
I long for the day when some fat sweaty slut is standing in the queue in Starbucks. HAT-TRICK!!!
Be complimentary, Rob: “Gee, you sure don’t sweat much for a fat slut.”