FL Ironman Sherpa for Rent. Great Personality.

It's probably obvious that I'm a bit of a nerd. I've been a member or moderator of several online forums for more than 10 years, so suffice it to say that I know my way around "teh interwebs. " Last night I made a visit to the Off Topic forum of one particular car "community" (of which I've been a member for over 8 years), and, out of the blue, some guy decided to repeatedly harass me, telling everyone how fat and ugly I was and how no one wanted to see me naked. (To put this in context, this particular member had gone to photobucket and posted some pictures of one of the other female members who he thought was hot. I guess he chose me as his example of what is NOT hot.)

I'm an honest and realistic individual. I'm a size 8 on my best day and a 12 on my worst. I don't have a bangin' athletic body and a supermodel face. Hell, I don't even want to see myself naked half the time. But, seriously, dude - did you have to go there?

It was really hard not to get into an argument with him. The saying goes (back away slowly, this is off-color and quite rude), Arguing on the internet is like competing in the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you're still retarded. Truly, there was no reason for me to justify his ignorance. But I wanted so badly to retort something like your comments were neither solicited nor solicitous, or I probably did more triathlons and marathons this year than the "skinny" girl you are leghumping did in her whole life. I didn't. But it bugged the shit out of me for the entire fucking night.

Now, I know what you're thinking: this is an internet douchewad that has no class or concern for other human beings, and if the only balls he has are big enough for him to argue with a girl on the internet - a girl who would never give him the time of day in real life - about how 'fat and ugly' she is, then I shouldn't give him a moment's consideration.

The problem is, he's reflecting what I've been told by others (and myself), directly or indirectly, all my life. I'm that girl about who people say "she has a great personality!" (Meaning, she's not hot.) It is amazing how hard it is to break lifelong habits, even when they're destructive. And it's impossible not to listen to something that's been reinforced by external sources your entire life as well.

I am not doing so good with that battle right now, and I regret to say I have no profound and uber-confident realizations to share from you courtesy of this exchange. It just pissed me off and I needed to rant.


On to happier news . . .

If I'm volunteering for IM FL, I guess I ought to work on finding a hotel for the weekend. I just wanted to throw it out there, 'cause I know Wes and some others are going, that I will bring all my supplies (and cowbells), so if you run out of anything I might have it.

8 tidbits of wizdom:

Molly said...

I've been a member of a ton of online forums too and you do encounter that kind of thing. I've been harassed, had my address and name posted, been called all sorts of ugly, chubby, etc. In the end, they're just looking for a reaction and the best thing we can do is not give it to them. You did good.

How exciting about FL! I'm volunteering at IM AZ in a month so you can give me tips on volunteering/spectating/sherpa-ing duties!

Wes said...

Ha ha ha! ROFL!! You so crack me up. Special Olympics... hee, hee...

You are firmly grounded in reality, it would seem. Good.for.you!! That guy was probably compensating for his inadequate package. If you think that forum is bad, come to the Georgia Soccer forum!! ROFL!!!

When "the day" gets closer, I'll shoot you our cell phone numbers so you can have some peeps to hang out with for the weekend, if you want.

How is your training plan going for being a volunteer/spectathlete? What? You didn't know you had to TRAIN to be a spectathlete? tsk, tsk...

Tribrit said...

Wes hit the nail on the head with the training plan. I volunteered at the 70.3 world championships last year and was I swear more exhausted at the end of the day than I would have been if I had raced!

Irene Odell said...

Don't be so hard on yourself. Even on a 'bad size 12' day, you're still very, very pretty!

Hope we run into you at IMFL.

Unknown said...

MAJ,

YOU ARE HOT! Dont ever forget it:)

Bob

PS

I agree with Wes....the guy has a wee will winky....lol

RBR said...

Leghumping? I would assume he is more familiar with 'Kleenex and lotion' humping and has NO chance of touching a real, live girl if his idea of manliness if anonymous, unprovoked, attacks on a car forum. In the words of my eloquent husband, what a fucktard!

Now, I have seen precious few pictures of the lovely MAJ, but your avatar is hot and you look pretty smokin' crossing the finish line at the Hammerhead tri. Besides, funny, educated, and athletic women are ALWAYS hot!

So give this asswipe EXACTLY the amount of mind space he deserves, less than 0 and go about your life where real, live people actually like you.

Duane said...

Well I for one would love to see you naked!

CCP said...

F@$* him comes to mind.

Oh, I wish that I were still doing FL IM. Have fun volunteering. Your help will be greatly appreciated by everyone!