My sister thinks I might be getting a little high in the instep.  She reprimanded me quiet sharply the other day when I casually mentioned that I wasn’t into men who wore wifebeaters paired with Timbs. I told her that I didn’t like the combination as a fashion choice nor as a lifestyle. “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” she responded with heat. She then reminded me with censure that despite my persona that read Bougie our origins were in fact quiet blue-collar.  People are always taking you a part, judging you and criticizing you so don’t do it to others! It was a reprimand. I heard her message and I was duly chastised. Secretly in my heart though, I still didn’t think that a man who wore timberland boots with socks and shorts and a mesh wifebeater in a hundred degree weather would be for me.  What would we talk about? I would constantly try to rework his fashion and bring it from the 90′s into the millennium. I’m not Donatella Versace but geez.

I’m an educated woman. I work hard and I’m ambitious to the bone. I have plans and dreams. What’s wrong with dating a man who’s my style and lifestyle counterpart? In television shows like the now defunct show Soul Food, Terry, (Nicole Ari Parker) the lawyer, dated the UPS guy. In another movie 35 and Ticking, the same actress was a celebrity Sports Newscaster and she dated and married the water delivery boy. In real life would this happen?  Hmmm…maybe?

When I relayed these unrealistic scenarios to my sister she was all over me. “Would you date a construction worker, rich girl? (I’m not rich but that was her way of insulting me)? Ahh, yeah..is he the lead contractor? She grunted in disgust. “Would you date the plumber?”  Yup, I said.  “The bus driver?” On what shift? I asked quiet reasonably. My response made her stomp her feet. “Would you date the garbage man?” When I hesitated in answering she went all philosophical on me. “50cents wears wifebeaters.”  I responded by pointing out that 50cents wifebeaters cost more than my rent. It doesn’t matter she said. These guys in the timbs could be ambitious, smart and the love of your life. I don’t want you to close yourself off and be a childless spinster. Ouch. Did she have a point?

Ok, I said relenting. The next time the cable guy comes to my house I’ll jump his bones even if he starts his sentences with, “what’s up shorty.” My sister kissed her teeth and had nothing further to say. She was done, with the topic and with me. I’m not saying that every man has to walk around in a suit and tie and that blue-collar boys aren’t tasty, but is it wrong for a professional woman to give the guy with the wifebeater and timbs the side-eye?

Do professional women think they’re too good for the urban guy?