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So here's mine: I went walking today intending to visit the river and hang out on the footbridge, and when I got there the bank was lined with a bunch of guys in track suits fishing, and the bridge was occupied by a group of young girls, obviously their friends. I didn't think anything of this and walked onto the bridge anyway.
I don't remember now how it started, but the girls ended up surrounding me and, for lack of a better word, harassing me. "Spare a fag? Spare two euro? Are you Chinese? Are you a les? Do you want to be les with us? Do you take it up the bum?" and things of that nature.
Then I remembered my roommate calling her brother a "Pav," and explaining to me that she called him that because he wore track suits and shaved his head and a Pav was like trailer trash. Then I realized Pav must be short for Pavee. (I'm still really new to Ireland, and kind of slow.) ....Anyway I answered all the girls' questions--I assumed they were used to being told to fuck off and get a job, partly because while I was there two passers-by told them those things--and I think they were surprised. They asked if I was going to call the garda on them. They were all 12 years old, except one who was 16, and they kept asking if I would go drinking with them that night or if I would take them into the Off-License. erg.
When they asked if I was "les," I said, "No, I'm bisexual," and they ran away screaming "Dirty les" and things like that. They ran about 50 feet then came back and started asking if I'd ever licked a girl's fanny, etc etc.
I ended up talking to them for about half an hour or more. I feel completely frazzled now. My problem is this: I had the impression that these kids are pretty regularly treated like dirt because they act this way, and I assume they act this way because they're regularly treated like dirt. I spent this whole chunk of time refusing to be be shocked or incensed by anything they said, in order to maintain a conversation and convey the idea that once in awhile people will interact with them like humans. Now I'm wondering if I acted out of condescension and ended up doing more damage than anything else. They definitely thought I was a zoo animal, and I'm wondering if by talking to them, which was obviously unusual in and of itself, I didn't just encourage them to alienate people. I dunnooooooo. I couldn't be more of a clueless outsider in this particular situation. |
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