One year I went to get my ears pierced at Claire’s. I had to sit in the parking lot outside for a while first, finding my nerve.
I was the only customer in the store. There was a truly astounding level of purple everywhere, enough to probably make a dragon feel like a My Little Pony.
“Are you nervous?” asked the woman behind the counter.
“Not really,” I said inaccurately, “but I have to say that the level of femininity here is quite intense.”
“Oh, Claire’s is for everyone.”
“Thank you for saying that,” I said, and I smiled.
While I filled out some paperwork, she started to dance to pop music that was playing in the background.
“Do you pick the music?”
“No, they send us a CD that we have to play. It’s not my music; I don’t like it. But I still sing along and dance to it.”
Thus reminding us that women make history, but not under conditions of their own choosing.