Profiled

One of my coworkers told me about an author who made an inappropriate comment about an editor with whom he'd worked in the past. The author, apparently, had some issues with his former editor and commented that she just needed to "get laid" because that would have solved all of her problems. Now you'd think that this was just a conversation between two dudes, but it wasn't! There was another editor present, a woman who'd replaced the editor the author was badmouthing. The woman was, rightly, offended by the author's statement. Now I wondered why an author would say be so crude, particularly in front of another woman.Then it occurred to me that the author said what he said in front of the woman because the woman has tattoos. I am confident he would not have said something so inappropriate in front of a woman who wasn't all tatted up. People often think that people, particularly women, with tattoos are down for whatever. Consider the common slang of calling a back tattoo a "tramp stamp." It's all related and it's unfair to stereotype and profile someone based on their body art. (For the record, I do not have any tattoos nor do I ever want any, but I feel that adults should do what they want to decorate their own bodies.)