Feminism at the grocery store.

Pet peeve: when women give up and let a man take care of things.

I told myself that I wouldn't post anything about my job, but we all know that plan wouldn't pan out, now didn't we? I work at a grocery store. I courtesy around, picking up odds and ends, making everything look pretty, and bagging your food for you to gorge yourself on later.

Being my first job, I can't say that it's a particularly appealing profession in the long run. To those who do go into the grocer-ing business, I applaud you. I've heard you people can end up making a lot of money and work your way up sky high. I wish you the best of luck, but it will never be for me. When I walk into work I always try to remind myself how lucky I am to have a job. Not only because of the crappy economy, but also because a few decades ago it would have been seen as "unfeminine" for me to be working. Or something like that.

Which brings me to my next point. Women have come a long way in the past century. We've won the right to vote, we can run for government positions, we are able to work our way up in life without depending on others to provide for us. Basically, we are freaking rock stars. So why is it that some women feel the need to put themselves back into that box of dependency?

Part of my job is bringing in shopping carts after they're discarded in the parking lot. Yes, at times it is physically taxing. But it's not all that bad. It's a beautiful day! It's a chance to get away from customers! (Seriously though, love you guys.) It's an opportunity to move around instead of waiting for something to happen. (That's not quite true. For heaven sakes, I work at a grocery store. Busy, busy, busy!)

Today, however, a woman was stepping into her car when she saw me struggling to get a couple carts unstuck. Before taking off she said, "They shouldn't make the girls do that. Bring the boys out here."

Well goodness me, I wasn't aware that I was incapable of manual labor!

But for real, why? Why do you want to go back to a way of life that puts women at the bottom of the food chain? I enjoy opportunities just as much as the next guy.

In her defense she isn't the first one to say something like that to me. I was once vacuuming the entryways when a man came in and told me that I was going to make a wonderful housewife. If I hadn't begun the whirling of the vacuum again I'm sure I would have said somethings to that man that would certainly have come back to bite me later. It isn't his fault he's stuck in the fifties.

I just don't understand. Don't say you want equality and then sit back and let some man carry the load when you know you can do the job a whole lot better. Get out there and bring in your own carts.