Academic social functions are just a hoot when you're twenty something and female. Academia seems to be full of blustering, well aged gentlemen, concerned only with impressing their peers and puffing out their bellies. Beady-eyed rivalry and conversational one-upmanship aren't very becoming around the dinnertable.
I stood by the door yesterday evening, welcoming them as they came in and introducing them to one another unnecessarily. "And what are you studying here?" asked one of them, jokingly. Cue a pitying smile from me and polite laughter from the others.
"Old codgers and their social handicaps" I replied.
Except I didn't. Because then they might fire me.
