Women on the Train

Since I am a senior citizen I always take the lead carriage on the train. It is the carriage reserved for the elderly, pregnant women, people with restricted mobility, and children. More often than not I am one of a few men, and I am surrounded with crowds of women.

On Wednesday afternoon I rode the LRT1 from Taft Avenue to Doroteo Jose. An old woman accidentally shoved the arm of a middle-aged lesbian; the arm was bandaged, and I happened to see, by scanning the arm, that it bore a knife wound. The lesbian shrieked and complained that her arm hurt badly. The old woman, not seeing the bandage at first, retorted that her arms were aching too. Despite the intervention of the carriage guard a verbal spat ensued. The old woman eventually kept apologizing to the lesbian in English. It was the lesbian who put an end to it all by announcing, "Tumigil na ako--tumigil na rin kayo!"

This afternoon, a rainy one that caused a horrible crush at the train station, I rode the MRT from Taft Avenue to Cubao-Araneta Center. An old woman accidentally leaned her arm on the head of the young woman in front of her. The young woman complained that her hair was being pulled. The old woman, apparently not a good sport, went into a tirade of insults that ended up with many of the passengers shouting her down.

I note that women, regardless of age, are not ladies when they are with one another. I've seen them push one another aggressively and struggle for seats.

Stress, fatigue, rejection, and urban loneliness can bring women back a step closer to the Stone Age. Whenever that happens, they are the ugliest people I have ever seen.