Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum Series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Note: While at work, I overheard something that really set me off. It caused me to look up that nifty bonus word for Hal. Kate suggested I use fanfic to explain the situation that required my researching that word. Other than cleaning up the language a bit and deliberately excluding some of the more offensive aspects of the overheard conversation, the conversation in this story is, in fact, almost exactly what I overheard yesterday while on a conference call at my desk. As for the title, it’s a phrase a friend of mine uses when faced with idiots you fear may someday reproduce.
Ratings: Suitable for people over 13
Feedback: Email TT at: ttsmiscellany@yahoo.com
You! Out Of The Gene Pool!
By TT
Stephanie leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. She had never been fond of meetings or work-related classes and conference calls were even worse. This one promised to be even more boring than usual, but she really didn’t have a choice in attending it. The fact that all of the conference rooms were in use was also a negative since that meant she was stuck at her desk holding the receiver to her ear for the duration.
The only fortunate thing was that all the guys were out on jobs so she was more or less alone on the floor at the moment. Still, it wasn’t as nice as using the small conference room where she could stare out the windows.
The meeting started and Stephanie sat up in order to pay attention to what was being said. As boring as this was, she needed to understand the information being shared. She watched her computer screen as the speaker dove into the material and moved through the presentation.
At some point during the meeting, she heard voices of two of the Merry Men headed toward her. They weren’t overly loud, but their voices were just distracting enough to draw her attention away from the conference call.
“I don’t know where you get these ideas,” one of the men said. “The only jobs women should hold are teacher and nurse and, then, only until they get married. After that they need to stay at home, keep the house and raise the kids.”
“If that’s their choice, I see nothing wrong with that,” the other man said.
Stephanie felt her cheeks begin to color. She had never responded well to chauvinists and hearing such things in the office was intolerable. If she could identify the voice of the first man, she would make sure to explain things to him.
“Choice?” the first man scoffed. “That’s the biggest problem. Women don’t know their place because too many men refused to stand up for what is right and let them have ‘choices’. Women aren’t smart enough or capable enough to handle the real world Their minds are too simple and not at all developed.”
“Hey, man. That’s not right,” the second man interrupted. “There are a lot of smart women out there including my sisters.”
The first man snorted his disgust at this statement. “Please. Just because some teacher somewhere had to give the girl a good grade for ‘equality’s sake’ is no reason to assume they’re capable of rational, intelligent thought.”
“How do you explain Madam Curie?” the first man asked, annoyance evident in his voice.
“Her husband did all the work. He just let her have the credit so she wouldn’t nag him.”
“That’s –“
“Whatever,” the first man cut off. “The broad was so stupid she kept radioactive material with her and killed herself. Is that really a sign of intelligence? You need to rethink this. Women just aren’t that smart. They need to be put in their place and reminded to stay there on a regular basis.”
Stephanie was fuming. She knew her face was red with anger and could feel her hands beginning to tremble as rage overtook her, but she couldn’t do or say anything about it since she needed to stay on the line and focus on the meeting. Trying to tune the two men out, she used her free hand to cover the ear that wasn’t covered by the receiver. Unfortunately, it did no good.
“You seriously believe that, regardless of how intelligent a woman is, regardless of how well qualified or how talented they are, they should never be anything other than wives, mothers, nurses or teachers?”
“They could be whores,” the first man added. “But otherwise, yeah. There is no woman who is as good as or better than a man at anything that matters”
“So if the best qualified doctor, the only one who could save your life was a woman, you’d refuse,” the second man asked, disbelief evident in his voice.
The first man laughed. “Oh, that’s rich. There’s no way a woman could ever be as good a doctor as a man. Sure they might pretend to understand women’s issues, but that would be about it. If some woman is deluded enough to think she’s the best at an operation or something that would save my life, I’d refuse. I’d want a real doctor there to save my life, not some woman pretending to be a doctor.”
The second man let out a sound of disgust. “You’re sick, man,” he said before the sound of his retreated footsteps sounded on the floor.
“Whatever,” the first man muttered. “Women aren’t good for anything anyway. All they do is whine and complain. They’re only good for one thing.”
Stephanie heard his mutterings fade as his footsteps, too, headed away from her desk.
She somehow managed to take notes on the rest of the presentation until the meeting was over. There was no way she would remember any of it but, hopefully, her notes would hold some of the information she needed.
Done with the meeting and still shaking with rage, she stood up from her chair, grabbed her gym bag and stepped out of her cubicle.
She nearly ran into Ranger and Tank. Shooting them a glare filled with all of the fury she was feeling, she barely registered both men flinch and step back as she continued toward the elevator. There was only one way to handle this sort of emotion. She was thankful that Ranger and Tank had taken the time to teach her some moves and how to use the body bag. She only hoped Ranger had a spare bag stashed away somewhere because she was fairly certain the current one wasn’t going to survive.
End