On my daily walk to the subway, I pass a schoolyard where a gang of 10- and 11-year-old boys taunts me by pointing and shouting: “Botox! Botox!” I am not sure whether they think I need Botox, or are trying to tell me I look 10 years younger than my actual age. At any rate, I haven’t come up with an adequate response, and I hope you can help.
- Anonymous, New York
Response:
Talk about a back-to-school nightmare.
Packs of boys can be cruel, even those as small-fry as 10 or 11 — whose youth may also explain their ignorance of more cutting-edge injectables. (I mean, Botox? That’s so 2005.) Don’t waste another second trying to interpret their jab. It’s probably a crack about your age, but who isn’t older than 10?
Taken singly, mean boys (like many gang members) may lose their sting. If you wouldn’t feel intimidated, try calling one to the fence where you pass. Say: “You, in the red cap, come here, please.” The flip-side of our greater age is that it may confer some authority. Then remind him calmly: “It isn’t kind to harass folks about the way they look. How would you like it if I made fun of you?” You may be happily surprised at the result.
If one-on-one interaction is not your speed, do not volley insults in reply (about their childish palates, for instance: “Chicken fingers!”) That will only escalate your troubles. And never discount the pleasure of silent visualization: quietly picturing their pending adolescent acne and eventual male-pattern baldness.
On my daily walk to the subway, I pass a schoolyard where a gang of 10- and 11-year-old boys taunts me by pointing and shouting: “Botox! Botox!” I am not sure whether they think I need Botox, or are trying to tell me I look 10 years younger than my actual age. At any rate, I haven’t come up with an adequate response, and I hope you can help.
- Anonymous, New York
Response:
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