February 23, 2006

Bella's Ponytail Becomes a Point of Contention

Three homeless men in Little Chinatown (AKA Uptown) have helped me to understand that to ask a young woman to "take me home and keep me forever" is acceptable behavior, but to touch that young woman's ponytail while telling her she has "nice hair" is crossing the line.

There was actually an argument among these men that continued for a few sentences after I crossed the street (against the light) to get away from them. Man #1 seemed to feel a need to defend my honor, in some weird way, after finishing his slurred pitch for my affection, when Man #2 reached out to touch my hair. "Don't touch her! You can't touch her!" he scolded.

Silly me, thinking that running my errand in broad daylight (noon) would make me less likely to run into this kind of thing. Guess not. Such is the power of my no makeup, winter-burned bright pink cheeks, and grubby ponytail mojo. Watch out, homeless Chicago. I'm here to break your hearts.

1 comment:

Reincarniture said...

wtf is with homeless guys today? I get a lot of wooping and "hey hunny" but rarely do I get full sentences aimed directly at me. The first homeless guy was walking towards me and as we crossed paths he asked me if I would marry him. The second homeless guy told me I had the prettiest coat he has ever seen. Wtf? I think that these homeless men had a meeting last night and decided that it was time to start getting aggressive. I would say that this blatant hitting on us is unacceptable, but I'm genuinely amused by it, so I will probably start encouraging them by wearing tinier clothes.