Basic White Girls can find an exit.

After swim class on Mondays and Wednesdays, random members from the class go sit around a table and drink coffee before they leave for work. Total mishmash of humans. Lorna sews her own fleece pants and wakes up at 3:30 am because she doesn't want to feel rushed. Anna sports a faux-hawk, has a dimply grin and writes code in the Spokane Valley. Coach Mike has self-diagnosed ADHD. When he talks he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and jumps right back into his epic description using his hands to explain just HOW epic the wild night was.

These have become my people. I don't know them very well -- but I am working on it. 

We were sitting around the tiny circular table, chatting as people arrived, grabbed some coffee, giggled at Mike and left for work. A fabulous start to a Monday morning. I overheard Coach explain to (yet) another swimmer that, "Men only tease the people they love. It's a guy thing. We do it because we care." 

Instinctively, I shot back, "But SHOULD they do it?" 

My feminist can popped open. All the worms. 

But. Seriously. 

"Well I think so! It's how we show affection." I left it there. I didn't need to argue with Mike (who is my dad's age, and in another life maybe could be that awesome uncle that comes around twice a year) because Mike loves me, and there is no reason to compromise that. 

I hate being teased. When someone teases me, I feel defensive. Teasing makes me want to fight back. I receive responses like, 

"You need to learn how to take a joke." 

"Maybe you are taking things a little too seriously." 

"Calm down, I was just teasing." 

I have one reply: I do take myself seriously. Deal with it. 

My life is just starting. For 17 years, I studied and took tests, and I was taught to take those seriously. For 12 of those years, I was an athlete. I took practice seriously, I worked hard with serious commitment and dedication to develop a serious skill. I grew up in a demanding, loud, rigid household where my feelings were not taken seriously, unless I fought for it. 

Take me seriously. The BASIC WHITE GIRL MOVEMENT is a subculture of women who don't need to be taken seriously. The women I admire: my Biola professors, my grandma, Emma Watson, my high school math teacher... I take these women seriously when they suggest I do something. They don't mess around with advice. They don't need their nails done, or their eyebrows *on fleek*, their coffee is light brown because it is coffee. Not a Pumpkin Spice Latte. And men don't tease them. 

Natasha doesn't need to chill, or relax, or take a joke. That will come with age. Natasha needs respect and for the Basics to get out of my way. 

Next up: There are no beauty contests for boys in high school.