The owner of this store has the most childishly misplaced anger I have ever seen.
My cousin, younger brother, and I parked in front of his shop on the main street to dine at the establishment next door. When we got out of the car, my cousin asked me if she could borrow a tampon. A man came out, identified himself as the owner, and informed my cousin that she should "learn some self-respect" and "watch [her] language." I would normally be respectfully acknowledgeable of such a request had more profane language been exchanged, provided that the question was posed in a polite manner. Instead, this felt invasive and absolutely inappropriate.
Feeling incensed by such a rude request, we walked off to have a late lunch. About an hour later we got back into our car and the owner came out once more and very sarcastically told us to "have a great day guys." As I pulled onto the road, the same owner who had twice harassed us unjustifiably began tailing us in his white SUV. What the hell! I slowed down to 15 MPH so he wouldn't have a reason to call the police on us, then abruptly pulled into a gas station to see if he was, in fact, following us. He turned in behind me and, as I went to go back onto the main road, got out of his vehicle and began yelling at us. I informed him that he was a "f***cking asshole" (I think at that point I was justified in saying so) and he yelled back "You punks wanna see what happens when you mess with me?!" and walked around his car and began opening his rear passenger door. At that point I drove off because I had a chance to turn with a break in the traffic, but moreover I was immediately worried he had a weapon in his backseat.
Every story has two sides but the very basic facts are that a young woman asked for a tampon, was told to learn self-respect by a chauvinistic male well over twenty years her senior; this same man then followed our entire group, nearly an hour after the first exchange, in our car before making a motion that definitely came across as a threat of bodily harm.
Seriously, what the hell? I spend a lot of time in Montana, as it is very nearly my second home, and many of my relatives, young and old, have been born across the state. In turn, I try my best to support local communities but I'm not sure I'll ever want to return to Livingston because of this experience.
(And on my soapbox: what a comment about our cultural climate that a woman be unable to avoid censure by not gently whispering about a very natural process of the female body. There are vestigial remnants of patriarchy everywhere in this country that seek to oppress women in a variety of ways that we should not turn a blind eye to.) read more
