Bedutched

This morning during my cycle in to work, I got shoved by a grown (Dutch) man. Not a drunk, homeless man. A professional man, in a suit, carrying a briefcase, on his way to work. He was a pedestrian. I was on my bike. I had a green light, but he insisted that he was more important than me, and that he was entitled to cross the bike path and cut me off. I had to stop, lest I hit him, which would not be the first time. He stood right beside me on my bike, leaning his junk against my elbow, trying to intimidate me. Then when I went to pedal again, because clearly this altercation wasn't going anywhere, and I had places to be, he shoved me aside and walked in front of me. Nice.

Just a few days before this, at the North Sea Jazz festival, my friends and I had to tell another grown (Dutch) man (probably in his 50s) that it is NOT ok to call a woman you don't know a bitch, especially when she has done nothing to you, and when you said it loudly enough to startle your neighbors, and when everyone is just trying to have a good time (no, it wasn't me he was talking to!). His response was "she was a DIRTY bitch!".

What is wrong with Dutch men??