In Defense of the Average White Female Office Worker
QR Code Link to This Post
I really take HUGE offense to everyone dissing on Average White Female Office Workers (AWFOWs) in DC who shop at Target and the Gap and watch reality TV once in a while while eating a Lean Cuisine.
I am here to defend my people.
I AM an average white female office worker, but not by choice. Do you think I'd do this for fun? Are you nuts? Do you think any of the women walking around downtown LIKE their jobs? Do you think it's not a struggle to get out bed, put on my Average White Office Worker clothes, get on the crowded Orange Line with all the with AWFOW's EVERY SINGLE DAY to work another day for The Man, my Average White Boss?
Much like our Buddhist/Quaker friend (whatever that is), I have also worked since I was fourteen years old. In fact, I'm 21, I go to GW, and I'm paying for it all on my own. I have a full-time job. Oh yeah, I am a full-time student too, with a double-major.
I pay for my own apartment, my own car, cell phone, all the trappings of modern urban life ON MY OWN. Everything I have, I got it by myself. My parents don't give me a thing. They are also Average White Office People in a MUCH less glamorous city than D.C. On my own, I barely make enough to pay rent/car, much less for school loans and going out like a normal 21-year-old.
So why do I (we -- all AWFOWs) do it?
There's something extraordinary about being an AWFOW here in D.C. Unlike our "I've-been-to-50-foreign countries" cute foreign accent/Buddhist/Quaker/inner-city bike riding friend, I can't travel just yet. I have not published my own "literary novel." I DO shop at Target. I do go to Filene's Basement. I do watch a little reality TV now and then. SO WHAT.
It's elitest women like you who show up at art openings and give me the evil eye in Adams Morgan that make me ILL. For all of your education and experience, shouldn't you have learned not to jump to conclusions about people?
Despite all these trappings of the "average" lifestyle -- which you all seem so thoroughly disgusted with -- I guarantee you that AWFOWs work day in and day because they're hoping for something BETTER.
Like: being able to travel to 50 countries, publish a book, buy a beautiful old house to fix up, take care of their parents in old age, provide well for children they hope to have one day, get a graduate degree, do Peace Corps, go to law school, start their own business, etc.
If these things seem average or mainstream, well screw you.
So the next time you hipsters/literatis/NPR freaks see a tired, bedraggled AWFOW at Safeway buying a stack of Lean Cuisines and a Cosmopolitan or In Style, don't consider her uneducated, average, or below you. You may not think she's exceptional YET, but she's dreaming about it.