Please Just Shush

I was watching 12 Years a Slave yesterday, and what annoyed me was the amount of disrespectful audience members I was surrounded with. 12 Years a Slave is a very powerful film without many words that need to be spoken, and it's extremely frustrating when rude people don't shut up throughout the entire film.

Whenever something that involved torture in the film, I heard some mother next to my boyfriend saying "Hmm" very loud every time something brutal would happen. I lost count throughout the entire film, and all I felt was rage. My blood boiled and I really wanted to put that woman in her place. Not long after, there were two older women in their fifties or sixties that wouldn't stop talking about nonsense. My anger built up, and my pet peeve began to get worse. I wanted to put those two women in their place as well. Every minute I'd be turning around because I was getting agitated by their gossip, narrowing my eyebrows down, and hoped they'd be stupid enough to stare back at me and know I was furious at them.

Two hours in, and I was surprised I could contain my anger for so long because I'm not a tolerant person. At the same time, they both said "Hmm" and gossip in one go. I got lost it and said "Shut up." What I really wanted to say had a lot of curse words in there, but I knew I'd probably start a fight. I never wanted to pick a fight; I just wanted them all to shut up.

They didn't listen. Again with the gossip and "hmm." I said "Shush!" seething my words, and again "Shut up!" For approximately five minutes, they bothered to keep their mouth shut.

Not long after, the mother's phone went off once in the cinema, and I told her to shut up once again. Her phone went off again and I said "Look, put your phone on silent or get out." She gave me a hasty look, and said something insulting under her breath. I didn't bother to take notice and grinned at my bravery. I felt at ease. I finally made her keep quiet. It wasn't about making someone feel horrible about themselves; it was always about standing up for myself rather than being passive aggressive.

Every day we all go through situations in life where we complain and kick ourselves for not doing what we should have. We feel bad confronting someone about something we don't like. It's better to rip a band aid off than to let the wound become infected and harm ourselves in the process. The best thing to do is just do it for yourself.

#assertiveness
#respect
#self_respect
#consideration
#people
#life
#life_skills

%selfavenue