I know I’m a tad rare being a female working in a technology field. There are in truth a lot more women in IT than people seem to think…. but the men still outnumber us.

One thing that has happened around my office since I moved into IT that I have been totally blindsided by is female coworkers from around the building hinting that they think I should date the guys in my department.

Don’t get me wrong… I adore the guys I work with. There are three, and I’m lucky that I would gladly call each one of them a friend. But, first of all, I’m in a serious relationship already and everyone knows that. Second of all, that is NOT why I’m here. I didn’t enter a dominantly male field to “land a man.” I’m a professional, thank you kindly.

It just pisses me off, and disgusts me, really, that these women have nothing better to do than speculate if I would make a good match with the men I work with.

They see us together, cutting up and having a good time (because there’s no other way to be at work if you ask me) and they just assume that there is something beyond friendship there. Most of my friends in my life outside work are male, too, so I’ve dealt with this before, I’ve just never been trapped in an environment with the harpies. I can’t comprehend why a huge percentage of women can’t understand there is such a thing as platonic friendship between opposite sexes. The guys might as well be female as far as I’m concerned; I don’t give a shit what gender anyone is. All I care about is the core personality that makes them them and allows me to enjoy their company. I’ve got friends of both genders, even if the females are more rare, and of all sexual orientations, and I love them all for who they are. They could be genderless aliens for all I care.

It is not my fault that two of the guys are single and lonely and everyone knows it. I’m not single, nor am I lonely. The first two times it happened my reaction to them was to state, “THAT is NOT why I am here,” because frankly it’s none of their damned business what the status of my romantic life is, but I realized quickly that they don’t seem to understand the concept of being professional, of desiring to have a career somewhere. I got tilted heads and squinty eyes in return to that remark, so I chose the other tactic, to remind them I already am in a relationship.

But it keeps happening. I found out today it has even happened amongst women at one of our other divisions when I wasn’t even there.

Talk about fucking livid.

I have to find a way to handle it better. I snapped at the last woman who made a remark about it last week. The only other thing I can think of to stop the situation is if I started wearing a ring on the finger that symbolizes commitment in our culture, but I’m not marrying Boyfriend any time soon. We have too much growing up to do.

Maybe I’ll just make my desk area a shrine to him, lots of photos everywhere, and go buy myself a band and stick it on my ring finger. And tattoo his name on my forehead.

I mean really. Is it that hard to mind your own fucking business, anyway?