Sexism is the foundation on which all tyranny is built. Every social form of hierarchy and abuse is modeled on male-over-female domination.
Andrea Dworkin, critic
I am furious about the way women are treated by asshole men in power. Two examples that have me steaming and I promise you letters will fly shortly.
Wife’s air conditioner in her Honda CRV went out. I knew it was going to be expensive, but I told her just to take it in and I would take her to work. She called and they couldn’t give her an estimate until they looked at it. They called wife Monday morning and told her the unit was shot and that it would cost $2,101. She was shocked and felt bad as if the air conditioner going out was her fault when she told me the cost. I stayed calm and I called another mechanic, who unfortunately didn’t handle air conditioners, but referred me to another place. I called back the Honda dealer at First Honda in Simi Valley to get the details about what he told wife. Trevor told me it was going to be $2,101 and I told Trevor not to touch the car and I would pick it up tonight.
Paraphrasing here: Well just second, Mr. Misanthrope, you have been a customer here for a long time, let me see what I can do. I will call you back in an hour or so.
He called back: Mr. Misanthrope, I called my parts’ representative and we can do the whole job for $1,071. He is going to give us the parts because you have been a long time customer. It might be two days before you get your car back.
Only wife has been a good customer. I have always hated the First group of car dealers because I felt they were less than ethical when dealing with me years ago, and I had issues with the Nissan service charging $10 more for an oil change than the Thousand Oaks Nissan service, but wife continued to go to Honda because it was close. Despite the fact that when we purchased the car, I was quoted one loan percentage figure, but when wife went to sign the papers, they had increased it by a couple of points and she made them lower it.
We went to the dealer to get wife’s keys and Trevor pointed to where the keys were. I stopped off at Trevor’s desk and in a stern voice and said we’ll get the car tomorrow night, correct (not in a questioning tone). He replied, “Yes, we have all the parts here.”
Caught in his own lie not even realizing that he told me he didn’t have the parts. I plan to write to the owner, who probably doesn’t care what is going on, thinking that there is a sucker born every minute. I plan to write a letter to the local Rotary chapter because I know the owner belongs to that group. I may even write to the city council members just to let them know, since a few are women.
Tomorrow, I’ll write my frustrations with Best Buy regarding Daughter and Daughter’s fight with her adjunct professor in the Master’s program, who yelled at her in class because she questioned his authority.
