Just a Girl....

Blanket statement- women aren't taken as seriously as men. Especially in money matters, men (and unfortunately some women as well) try, and often succeed, in putting things over on women that they wouldn't dare try with a man. I've got plenty more to say about this in a future post, but for now I've gotta talk about the bizarre phenomenon of weakness as a source of power. The unfortunate power of tears.
At midnight on a Saturday last month I was pulled over by a state trooper for weaving and general poor driving down the Palisades Parkway on suspicion of DUI.
I had a mild heart attack.
"License and registration please."
Another mild heart attack. Why? I was driving on an expired license, with no registration, in someone else's car who was not present. Neither did I have my cell or the owner's phone number on me. There was no doubt I was going to jail. And I was going to get disbarred. I was going to go to jail, get disbarred, lose my job, and be unable to find any other gainful employment because Lord knows law school provides you with no other marketable skills.
And then came the tears. Not quiet weeping, but a ferocious torrent of tears, bawling, bawling and gasping for air, bawling and eventual hyperventilation.
Long story short, no arrest, no ticket, only a mild warning. "Stop driving without a license" Mind you, my embarrassing display wasn't an act. Also, I did have a pretty decent excuse for driving, an almost decent excuse for driving poorly, and I certainly wasn't intoxicated. But there's no way a man would have gotten out of there without at least one, if not more, tickets and a little walk down the pavement in a straight line while touching his nose. I would trade in the power of tears in a heartbeat if it meant the end of infantilization of women in our society. But, would I would have preferred incarceration (or even a ticket) in the name of gender equality that night?
Please, I'm a feminist, not an idiot.