Are you practicing a skill while female? Studies show this is often misread by older men as a loud plea for unsolicited opinions. Next time, you can tell him to read your chest and consider his next words carefully.
"To be sure, intellectuals, contrary to the fantasies of cultural vigilantes, are hardly ever subversive of a society as a whole. But intellect is always on the move against something: some oppression, fraud, illusion, dogma, or interest is constantly falling under the scrutiny of the intellectual class and becoming the object of exposure, indignation, or ridicule.” -- Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, 1963
