Young Women on the Prowl, or Reshaping the Social Margin

I am fortunate to hear snipets of conversation during my commute. This evening, when I was walking through the Coleman ferry terminal, I witnessed two young women ogling a young man in a very obvious way. One said, "He's fine." The other, upping the ante, responded louder, "That one is damn fine!" Since he was closer to them than I was, I'm sure he heard them clearly. He kept walking and pretended he didn't.

I couldn't help but look at them. They were so fixed on his movements that they were oblivious to everyone else in the terminal, or at least that's the way they wanted it to seem. The guy walked outside and, as he passed out of their view, one said, "Damn, I got to check out that motherfucker!" She and her friend went to the phone booth to spy on him.

I guess I should say that the two girls were white and the guy was black, but this was much more interesting to me as a gender reversal than any issues brought by race. I can't be sure, but I think I would have felt pretty much the same way had the mix of race been different. That feeling was, to my surprise, anxiety for the guy's safety. It's absurd now; this was just blunt flirting technique that these girls learned by watching bad music videos. But I think the girls were feeling powerful there, and they were expressing that power over the guy--and maybe over everyone in the terminal. They were casting themselves against type, saying that they were free to do the objectifying. Maybe I'm conditioned to expect bad things right after people cross over the social margin. It's likely that I can't distinguish between transgressions and when those margins moving or being reshaped by time. Perhaps nobody can without the distance of time. All I know is that it bugs me when strangers try to make conversation in elevators.

I saw him later chatting with the girls and another guy, and the mood was nice, polite, and conversational. It made me feel relieved.