Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2022

The Little Tramp Comes to Dinner

As a child, I was terrified of being in awkward and embarrassing circumstances. Little has changed, and even today I will sometimes choose to not do something rather than risk an awkward interaction. Back when I was presenting male, this was interpreted as a very masculine trait, since one of the consequences was that I was loath to ask for directions. I’m sure on some level I was concerned about maintaining an appearance of competence and self-reliance. Mostly though, I was avoiding talking to people for fear that they would make fun of me for being lost or end up being berated for bothering someone. Why? Who knows. Maybe because, as a kid, that’s what it seemed like everyone did when I asked for help or admitted to not knowing something. Were they doing that to teach me self-reliance? Were they trying to teach this little kid to hold his own when bantering with the guys? I have no idea, but it left me with a life-long aversion to potentially awkward situations (or situations that I