Thought Provoking Article

The other day, I took the train downtown — something I did after a long, long time. As I boarded the crowded car, I saw two men look at me. At first, I did not bother. But after a while, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I looked at one of them in the eye and he looked away.

“Are we going to be a part of thought-provoking blog you’re about to write?” said the other.

“What?” I said, caught off-guard.

“Yeah, you know, something you’ll say about women being weirdly looked at.”
“And the article gets like billion shares and everybody’s posting it with the words — MUST READ”

“Oh…” I said after a little deliberation.

“And you’re going to start the article with a paragraph that sounds mundane at the beginning and by the second line, readers are going to be like Ah this is one of those harassment stories I should read first thing on a Monday?”

“Hey, you know your shit, don’t you?” I said actually surprised.

“Oh yeah, we know the internet alright.”

It was time for me to get off.

“What are you going to title it?” one of them called after me. I hadn’t thought about it, actually.

“I don’t know.” I said. “A headline that could get people hooked — a clickbait.”

“This woman took the train like any other day. What happened next will make you cry.” One of them offered.

“Uhm, no. People don’t fall for that sort of thing anymore.” I said.

“Oh they do. You just have to vary it a little. Maybe something like — What happened next will make you call the cops. You need to get under their skins.”

“Think like a reader.” the other added. “What do you want them to do; actually have you thought about what you want us to do? In your article?”

“Well, you guys are going to be sort of mean. You’ll set an example. I want the comments to go — Men are assholes, You go girl! That sort”

“But we’re hardly assholes. We just looked at you as you walked in. We’re even helping you structure your outrage blog post; we even speak with semicolons in our sentences.” They said defensively, almost in sync. They could’ve been the Weasely twins for all I cared.

“Uhm. OK yeah.” I said, seeing their side of it. “But look, I need fodder”. I was helpless now.

“You know what? Just write. Write about us. Write about this post. Write about posts like this in general. Write about writing.”

I got off the train now. I waved them a thank-you.

“A woman took the train and what happened next will make you click this link.” Said the taller one.