Me and others

In six grade I had a teacher who was was extremely conservative. Let's call her Mrs.R.

Mrs.R was this married woman in her 30s who absolutely loved to shame students. Since she was conservative, she believed that women should dress a certain way, homosexuality is a “bad lifestyle,” and race-mixing is cancerous for society. I'm not saying conservatism consist if this. This is just what she believed.

She was always correcting girls. From their posture, to their way of speaking, to how they dresssed. One day she even told me my hair was too “nappy” for someone to think I'm a proper woman. I was 12. I was not even a woman!

One day I got tired of her bullshit. I sat on my desk with legs crossed, I had the messiest bun ever with curls sticking out, I was wearing baggy shorts and sneakers with my perfectly unshaven legs. As soon as she saw me, we got into a heated argument:

“Ms.Martinez, not only you are late, but your looks are unacceptable.”

“What can I do about it? It's called genetic. My father is not the best looking man in the world.”

“Your hair being a mess is not genetic. Your are sitting like an animal. Your legs look disgusting. You look like you have no decency.”

“You have “decency” and still look disgusting.”

“You know Martinez, I am a grown woman. I am married and have my life together. You are just a kid and I can already tell you will live alone for the rest of your life. Men don't like when women don't take care of themselves.”

“Well, that's okay because I don't like men.”

The whole class fell silent. I was surrounded my homophobic, racist kids who couldn't believe the only Latin Hispanic person in the room just came out as gay.

My teacher was horrified. She never acknowledged me again. She never tried correcting my posture again. I'm still a rebel. Try me again bitch.