Interesting week, I guess.

So the school week began with the overzealously religious old guy in my Jewish Mysticism class arguing with the professor about the divine and human attributes of Jesus. "If you ask me," she said, "Jesus saying the Jews were the spawn of Satan shows he was fallible."
"Well, you know," he shot back, "they probably were." There was this stunned silence in the classroom for a few seconds, then a lot of nervous laughter. The professor wisely changed the subject.
The school week ended with a greasy-looking music store employee (or is that redundant?) telling me, after I had tried out a guitar pedal, that I was "one of the best girls we've had in here. We've had a lot of girls come in here, but you're good."
It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. I didn't want to snap at someone who worked at one of my favorite stores in the world, but I was pissed. And I laughed about it afterwards, but it stung. A lot. I've been lucky not to face any serious discrimination due to either my religion or my gender--anything that would keep me from getting a job, getting served in a restaurant, or being let into a club. But I've faced comments like "You can jam pretty good, for a girl." And "Ok, so you play acoustic?" And "Are you buying that pedal for yourself?" And "I'm a talent agent out near LA. You should give me a call--you're young, you're female..." The list goes on.
It's a double-edged sword, though. Being a female lead guitarist means I get noticed, I stand out, I feel special. I have to remind myself that the very reason why I'm more likely to attract attention than a male guitarist of equal ability also keeps me from ever being on an even playing field with men. The term "guitarist" can never be part of my identity--only the term "female guitarist." It's not fun to think about.
I just wish more people would be like my Jewish Mysticism prof, whom I'm respecting more and more these days, despite my dislike of her class: "It should surprise me that you're in a metal band, but for some reason, it doesn't." That's the kind of response I'm looking for.