What makes my blood boil

I have had a rough couple of days... mostly because going to work is like doing a job and learning a whole new degree at the same time. Each time a story is piled on me, I've had to learn all the new business terms that jump out of the page to greet me like some greek hieroglyphics. Some new terms I've learnt today includes price-earning ratios, net asset per value, net earnings per share, inventory turnover amongst the other bits which I shan't try too hard to recall now because I'm at home and can't be arsed to think about work any longer. Have learnt all about the markets, including reading cool price charts and learning more terms like buy volume, sell volume and the like.

On the very bright side, this work, surprisingly, doesn't bore me. I sometimes despair looking at these seemingly meaningless figures... but when you actually discover the whole mechanics of how these things work, meanings emerge that has a beauty of its own. I could never understand why in those films or tv series I've seen before, stock brokers and businessmen could get so excited about these figures but now I do see their light. While I have been happily living in my own arty/farty hippie world, real businesses are going on. Real processes that make the world function, produce the very things we need in our lives, are taking place oblivious to us. I guess I should count myself fortunate being able to appreciate both the business and arty dynamics of life. For now.

Which brings me to the subject of what makes my blood boil. I have had two knobs, who are actually quite endearing to me, patronise me today simply because 1. I'm a female... and 2. I do a film degree.

Case in point, I was having lunch today when I bumped into my ex-editor from another newspaper I worked for two years back. And after having a friendly exchange of greetings and insults, he started going on about how it's stupid that women magazines get female reporters to review bras, when bras are obviously worn for men's pleasure. He, of course, failed to recognise the awkward social situation of getting a men to review a bra, and the inherent male ego that will refrain himself from doing so even though in many cases, their perv nature is egging them to. That led to the conversation of females wearing tight clothes only so that other people can look at them and make them feel good about themselves. It didn't occur to my ex-ed that we women could be wearing what we wear for our own personal satisfaction, and not the satisfaction of others, both not being mutually exclusive. Then somehow it led to conversation about SG women being - wimpy.
Yes, spoilt and 'princess-y' was how he described us, not accounting that there are several different categories of women that exists in SG, and even so, that such a sweeping generalisation is supremely ironic of a hard-nosed, experienced editor.
He went on to describe how the malaysian female reporters in his newsroom are the more 'street-smart' ones that needed less hand-holding... coming to an almighty conclusion that SG women are the spoilt princesses, and Malaysian women are more street-smart.
Obviously that infuriated me.
Not having lived in the country for the last two years, I admit I wouldn't be as in-touch with the local scene as he has been - but still I'd like to think I know more about my fellow female citizens than that - well enough to defend our positions.
So I've started thinking about that question and have begun my own personal poll among friends and colleagues about their opinions on this matter.
And I'm gonna write up my own story about this - so any suggestions/comments/thoughts on this subject from any of you who've read this will be much appreciated!
Will leave that subject alone for the time being while I consolidate thoughts on that to construct a cohesive argument.

Tonight, I was talking to a friend who did an economics degree and is currently doing masters in the same thing. When he learnt I was working at BT, he immediately asked "What do you know about business", in of course, a very patronising tone. I proceeded to explain that not doing a business-related degree doesn't mean one doesn't know its concepts. The CEO I interviewed last week had mere three O level passes, did no fancy economics degree, and is operating a $30 million business, and expanding into the Middle East. But the friend started grilling me incessantly about terms he knew which he thought I didn't know, and then promptly accused my story, published today, for having sensational headlines about a company's drop in earnings. I explained it was hardly an unusual heading and cited a share price dip as an indication that it was a natural market reaction to the announcement of those results.
And then he remarked that the company's share prices dropped because of my headlines. Well, I thought, if my story actually had that much market power, shouldn't I be flattered! I proceeded to explain all the business terms he demanded before finally stopping because... I mean, who wants to talk figures after a hard day's work.
What irked him, really, I believe, was that he, an economics masters graduate, had to pit himself against a film studies undergrad.

I think I've had too many sweeping generalisations for today. Why do people constantly chose to indulge in them. Am I not guilty of it myself, sometimes. We should all stop perpetuating the cult of stereotypes and generalisations. Not everything is always as you think it to be.