Subtext
I was walking down the streets of Thailand when this cute guy approached me and offered me a ride on his motorbike. I told the guy I was dating at the time about the incident.
He goes, “Babe, are you sure it wasn’t a taxi driver?”
I’m not sure because I know how I think. He could’ve been wearing a uniform, and my brain would’ve ignored that completely.
A girl from my workout class said that I looked like someone with the name Angela. I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never been proposed to while doing squats. I’d have to think about it, but at least I’ll be in shape for the wedding.
When a taxi driver asks if I’m Japanese, instead of yelling at them for not being able to tell Asians apart, I take it as a compliment because Japanese girls are very cutesy and very demure, and I assume that that’s the vibe they’re getting from me.
The worst name I’ve ever been called was “psycho.” My initial reaction? So you think I’m hot. Because when a woman is unattractive, we don’t refer to her as “psycho.” Maybe deranged, a nutcase, or even cuckoo for cocoa puffs, but never “psycho.” Psycho is a term used to describe Megan Fox’s character in Jennifer’s Body or the character Gogo from Kill Bill Vol. 1. Those aren’t insults; they’re Halloween costumes.
A TV show that always brings me comfort and joy is Gilmore Girls. Rory Gilmore was a teenage girl who minded her own business, had one friend outside of her mother, and didn’t talk to any boys who didn’t pursue her profusely. Yet, she was hated the most out of anyone in her high school because, at the end of the day, she is a beautiful woman.
Even the beautiful men are not immune to the attacks. Take Jesus for example. If he was 300 lbs overweight, do you think they would still put him on the cross and parade him around town? They might try but would probably give up halfway because no amount of hatred for one person is worth doing cardio.
Nowadays, men are hated for having money more than for being good-looking. I can’t understand why. There’s so much money in the world. The other week, I got paid triple digits for looking after my friend’s cat while she was away. The cat had just given birth to five new kittens, so she wanted nothing to do with me. It was the same as when I had to live with my ex-boyfriend for a week after we broke up.
In the book “The Expectation Effect” by David Robson, he details an experiment where psychologists tracked a group of university students’ eye movements as they watched videos of adolescents during their school breaks:
“People who already felt popular and liked in their own life tended to look at the people nodding, chatting and smiling, while people experiencing isolation and loneliness barely noticed any signs of warmth.”
In both of these scenarios, the world seems totally objective. That’s because our brains are powerful prediction machines. Whether you think you live in a friendly or hostile world, you are correct. Despite being autistic, I’m pretty good at reading subtext. Perhaps it’s because I create my own. Some people call it being de-lu-lu, but I’ve seen miracles happen. Once, I found a butterfly in my room despite having my doors locked. I’ve no idea what the universe was trying to tell me. These signs can get confusing at times. Imagine how much easier life would be if our spirit guides took a course on “The 7 C’s of Effective Communication.”
