On the Quality of My Melons

Let's be blunt here: when you look like I do, you get used to Unsolicited Comments Upon Your Physical Qualities.  Most of the time they do not bother me- I choose to take them in the flattering manner they are most often intended.  Wolf-whistles or appreciative stares don't get my back up- on the contrary, often times they please me.  I may not have had anything to do with my genetic makeup or the symmetry of my features, but I have plenty to do with my physical fitness, clothing, makeup, and hairstyle.  So it's nice for my efforts to be appreciated.

However.

As I was riding home from work today, a cluster of boys (I'd say they ranged in age from about 14 to 17) who were conversing in Spanish (a language which I have a tentative grasp on) deliberately switched to English long enough to comment on my "huge melons" as I zipped past.

Readers, it pissed me off.

Those are supposed to be cantaloupes, in case you were wondering.

 And I spent the rest of the ride home trying to figure out why.  Why did that particular remark make me so angry, when other incidents have not?  I mean, I understand and appreciate the culture of piropos (goes back to that whole, "studied Spanish" thing) but this- this was not that.  But why wasn't it?  Was it just the crude phrasing?  (Piropos ought to be poetic, and I'll admit there was a tinge of insult to my anger- a sort of, "Screw you, my breasts are worthy of far better compliments than that!") After much thought and furious pedaling, however, I think I figured it out.

The incident pissed me off because those boys weren't trying to show their appreciation, or make me feel beautiful or good about myself- they were expressing their power over me by intimidating me.  A group large enough that I certainly didn't feel comfortable stopping and confronting them (as I have been known to do if just one or two males are being inappropriate), deliberately switching to a language they figured was my native tongue, to make absolutely certain that I understood the rude thing they were saying about my body.

Melons, indeed.