Yeah, I get that and it too, is a good and fair point.
For me, that's where the hyperbole comes in. This was a rant because she was upset. It was a representation of an emotional moment, that one where your slipping from fear and humiliation to anger.
Do I believe she meant what she wrote in the moment. Absolutely. Stress emotions are hot, sticky bastards that railroad and upend your psyche. They have to run their course. Do I believe she felt that way after the event was fully processed? I highly doubt it. In time, with work and no further incidents balance of psyche will be restored.
She vented publicly. Okay, that's her right to do so. For good and bad, that moment and how she felt about it are now memorialized. For good, she gets to take the next step forward out of the mental quagmire and there's a lesson here for anyone who cares to hear it. What public humiliation and threat does to someone's mental landscape. I know, no one was around—that's where the treat potential comes from. But, it was a public space and there could easily have been. Does anyone believe the presence of others would have tempered their conduct? I don't.
Come on. We've all seen it. Numerous times. Drunk and disorderly statutes have been on the books for a VERY long time for exactly this sort of conduct. Getting up into people's faces and making asses of themselves. Starting shit because they're drunk and 'having a good time'. At someone else's expense. Always at someone else's expense.
But again, the predominant message to women is "it's not that bad. You weren't really hurt. It's just a bunch or drunk guys being guys. So what?" So let me ask this. Had that drunken behavior been directed at an aged person, what would the respond to hearing about it be? What about a man? What about a child? A minority? A disabled person? An animal?
Would you suggest they're being a drama queen?
It's the same behavior. Yet any of them would get sympathy, understanding, and offers of assistance. Most especially within their own ranks. They would be listened to and heard. After all, one expects a profound and raw response to criminal conduct. It's only natural to become highly agitated under circumstances of duress. One might even say it's human. Though, btw, the animal would react the same way. Just saying.
Food for thought.
In the end, I believe this woman will be fine. She's going to process this event and go on being badass and awesome. As we do. I look at that essay as one frame of a whole film strip. It's telling, but it's not the whole story.
I hope she does a follow up, in her time, to complete the story. But whether to or not is her choice and her's alone.
