Betsy's Chair: An Extended Metaphor

Ahh, Middle East history. Today the professor announced that I was a Palestinian fellan, or peasant woman:

"Betsy sits in her chair, working. Her chair is really owned by an absentee land lord, some rich Palestinian with a large collection of chairs.

Eventually, the Jewish National Fund comes along and starts advertising really high prices to buy chairs. The absentee land lord sees he can make a lot of money, so he sells.

Now the Jewish National Fund is going to come and kick Betsy out of her chair so it can be settled by Jews in perpetuity.

Betsy is now chairless and wandering aimlessly about, unable to feed herself and getting involved in radical politics."

What followed was a 45 minute debate about Israel, Palestine, and the right to return, among other things. Except instead of using the words "Peasant woman" and "land," the class used "Betsy" and "Betsy's chair."

So, every 2 minute someone in the room was calling my name. I almost got whiplash from turning around so many times.

This reminds me of high school history, when Mr. Yanko used me as a metaphor for the English textile industry's "putting out" system. (This was supposed to be funny, because I had a reputation for being pure as driven snow.)

I briefly considered a sexual harassment law suit.