Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Regression

I just returned from my annual May long weekend vacation to a nearby island with over twenty friends.
Photographs and all the positive highlights are coming... but I decided to engage in a little catharsis first.

I have a lovely group of girl friends. Smart, funny, well-educated and ambitious, most on their way to being professionals or already there.
How the hell is it that (some of) these fabulous ladies turn into backstabbing 16-year olds when a man gets involved?

It is aggravating to watch. Sure, the fact that weekend was pretty alcohol soaked and a little hedonistic in its general theme probably helped, along with the fact that there were more single women than men.

Still... why do they let this guy drag them around like puppets? This particular guy had hooked up with three of the women there (not all that weekend!), including coming on to one of them very blatantly in front of the other. But they just give into it like helpless puppy dogs! Is it that hard to say no, or even "Not right now"? The worst was that no one would call him on it! In the midst of all this drama, everyone would precede their comments with what a nice guy he was, and then proceed to take a side against one of the women involved. It really is the sexual double standard in full effect-- he was the most promiscuous of the bunch, but the girls were angrily being dubbed sluts.

This cattyness unfortunately set the tone for a lot of the weekend. During the day, everything was sunshine and lollipops. The sun sets, the booze sets in, and it turned to whispering, cliques, and crying in the bathroom.

I'm probably exagerrating a little out of frustration. Also, the drama wasn't that glaringly obvious for the most part. I just have an extraordinary talent for getting myself wedged in the midst of it... sometimes I really need to learn to turn the psychologist off!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit on all your friends the other night. They were just so willing ...

Ant said...

Women. Tuh.

But then again men are bastards too.

I think androgynous aliens are the only ones we can really trust.

Or eunuchs.

PS YOU WENT ON HOLIDAY! HOORAY! :o)

Abbey said...

I was just talking to some guy friends about the astronaut story (hopefully you'd heard about it, if not I can provide context later).

Anyway, both guys were incredulous about why the woman went after the other woman when it was probably the guy that had played both of them. My answer? For some reason, women are always willing and likely to go after other women, as opposed to getting to the heart of the problem. The man. It's only recently that I've noticed this pattern. I'm not sure the reason.

Psych-o by now said...

You have got to love alcohol fueled female drama. It is always a good time (and only amusing if you are not a part of it).

PG said...

Drunk girls crying in the washroom over some loser guy...memories. I hate having to be the friend consoling the crying person trying to analyze the guy's behaviour or gossip about the other girl involved. It's hard to be sensitive -- if you're going to hook up with a guy that's already hooked up with two other friends, he may not be soulmate material.

Princess Pointful said...

Dorky Dad- Last time I invite you on holidays. And the suggestion of jello wrestling totally didn't help.

Ant- Or slugs! (when they still have both genitals)

Abbey- 100% agreed with you there. It's like in these situations we expect them to be sleezebags and hold the women totally accountable for turning them down.

Psych-O- Yes, it certainly brings me back about a decade...

PsychGrad- Exactly!! I'm not too sure what Girl #3 was expecting to happen.