MELLIPOP AND THE MEANING OF MISOGYNIST

Ok, so another intriguing train incident for Little Miss Mellipop today.

As mentioned in a previous post, I can't ever resist the temptation to scope out the preferred reading material of my fellow commuters. So the guy next to me today was reading the dictionary. He looked like Che Guevara (even down to the facial hair and beret), and was writing Spanish in a pocket notebook, so I naturally assumed that he must have been studying English.

When I noticed the blue highlighter in his hand, it instantly piqued my interest. So he's scanning the page, seemingly looking for a particular word. He then highlighted the word "misogynist". I inwardly giggled, wondering whether some ex-girl friend had only recently levelled that accusation at him. Or whether he had he just come from a campus meeting of anarcho-commie-feminist activists. He then put his dictionary back in his bag as I continued to mentally conjure up any number of unlikely scenarios in which he may have been exposed to the word "misogynist".

Anyway, my interest piqued once more, when he again took his dictionary from out of his bag, and started flicking through it for another word. This time it was the word "deceived", though this particular word was already highlighted in yellow. He wrote the word down in his notebook, and again put his dictionary back in his bag.

And again, five minutes later, the dictionary comes out again. By now, I'm hooked. What word was he going to highlight next? And what the fuck did it all mean?

The third word he highlighted was "delirium". Delirium? Now I was really confused. And subsequently disappointed, as he then got off the train.

So, thinking that I was never going to crack the code, I glanced across the newly emptied seat to see what another fellow traveller was reading on the way home.

It was an African guy. And he was reading the seminal self-help text "Men Who Hate Women, and the Women Who Love Them".

Ker-ching! It was all I could do to stop laughing out loud! Here I am reading over Che Guevara's shoulder, and here he is reading over the African guy's shoulder. And looking up the words he didn't understand!

Misogynist. Deceived. Delirium.

"Men Who Hate Women, and the Women Who Love Them". It all made perfect fucking sense!

It made a lot more sense than this African dude reading that book. It's a fucking chick's book. A book us gals read to discover the reasons why we always date men who treat us like shit.

I mean, what was the African dude reading that particular book for? To better refine his skills as a self-professed misogynist? Or was he simply a nice guy boning up on that current male fad, "I'm going to become a woman-hating asshole so that I can get laid"?

Men are weird.