co-worker

the h.r. lady at my office stopped by my cube to ask if i'd ever heard of "menopause: the musical." i had although i hadn't heard anything about it, and i told her as much. for no reason that i can retrospectively discern, she started telling me about how, although it was highly acclaimed, she didn't like the vagina monologues. she went on to explain that while there were "funny parts" there were also sad parts and when she went to the theater she didn't want to hear about rape. she likened this to her experience vacationing in mexico when seeing children begging on the street ruined her day.

i didn't say anything.

but this is america. these are the people funding musicals like "good vibrations" at $80 a seat and more, while new plays are hardly produced and, when they are, it's in tiny out-of-the way theaters where everyone works for free. these are the people who prefer a president with a strong point of view regardless of what that point of view might be to a leader who wants to think about the world in complex and nuanced ways and with whose opinions they might agree. these are the people who would rather be entertained than think. these are the people who are helping to shape this country into a place that me and my friends like less and less. these are the people who comprise the america that foreigners hate.