Passive/Aggressive

I'm passive in practically all professional situations and believe in talking things through calmly where misunderstandings and such are concerned. In other circumstances, I can be confrontational where the person I'm corresponding with is clueless to subtlety or something serious is wrong. I'm a firm advocate of directness, and, while the oversensitive won't like that, I obviously adapt my behaviour for them and only potentially undermine them if it seems really necessary. Overall, though, directness just saves time and refreshingly cuts through bullshit. Despite my passive exterior, if you show no respect to me or offend me, I can be formidable.

Of course, there are situations where confrontation is unfavourable yet there needs to be some sort of 'relief' from a situation. If faced with an intellectually superior or physically threatening 'foe', which isn't too often, I have a tendency to be passive-aggressive in these situations. I can be vindictive, subtly offensive, resentful, stubborn, and awkward, though rarely to the point of not 'letting' go or being especially cruel. Grudge bearers piss me off and, if someone bears an unnecessary grudge against them, I may just humour them.

Also, if I'm seriously physically attacked, which is a rarity these days though has happened in scumville where I live at the moment, I have a tendency to physically defend myself and usually succeed. Given 'passive resistance' totally mucked me up once, tackling an attacker head-on without losing my temper represents both an important psychological reaction and stops anything more sinister consequences to me. Of course, there is always a chance that things go too far, so 'escape' or 'police' are my first priorities.

Eseentially, though, I've experienced far too many emotionally turbulent family situations and a significant amount of bullying in my early adolescence to tolerate being used as a doormat, human punchbag, or agony aunt of stupid ranters. I now mostly 'fight' back against major threats if it doesn't mean I'll be more undermined in the first place. Indeed, I've found sufficient confidence and maturity to stick up for myself and, while that may give me one or two enemies, it beats the alternative.

Jam it back in, in the dark.