You have a penis, so you can't help me.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Not just limited to the ladeez.

Woman comes into the aisle of bath towels I'm currently stocking. She takes a couple off the shelf, inspects them, and throws them down messily in the wrong place. Then she asks me for a contour rug in a certain shade of blue.

I look around and find that we don't currently have the contour rug she's looking for; there's an "out of stock" tag in its place. I tell her this.

She snarks "Do you even know what a contour rug is?" and begins to describe it for me, because I can't tell her "Yes; it's the rug that goes around the shitter."

Then she asks if I can get her anybody who knows what she's talking about i.e. a woman. So I hand her off to the domestics specialist who happened to be working today.

Today was speshul.

[mathnerd]

Ugh. I hate this as much as I hate it when I get talked down to in auto parts stores.

Your story reminds me of a guy I worked with many years ago when I worked at the dales that bloom. The absolute BEST salesperson in the women's lingerie department was a guy. He was a gay guy, but not that that makes any difference. This man could look at a woman's body and instantly know what brands brands and styles would look and feel best on her, and he could usually get within one size of being right just by looking. All of our regular customers knew this and they (and a lot of the employees) would try to shop only when he was working, but he really did catch a lot of flack from people who didn't know him. Really, it was unfortunate for the women who refused to shop with him, because they missed out on his incredible knowledge and skills with fitting women's underpinnings.

[PastryGal]

Surprising I don't run into this much as a woman working in a hardware store. Hell I even get asked which snowthrower I think is better.

[mathnerd]

I think a lot of it has to do with where you are. In Florida, I run into this quite a bit, but there, there's a lot of the machisimo attitude among a large portion of the men. Where I am now, it doesn't seem to be as prevalent. I've been in a couple different parts stores for various things, including one time when I had a major brain-stumper going on, and I've yet to be treated as anything but an intelligent human being looking to solve issues with her car.

[Kanalah]

When I tried to join a local quilting group, the ladies didn't want me to join because I "looked to young to be a quilter" Lucky for me I'm used to this, so I brought a bag of "street cred" to prove to them that not only can I quilt, but I can do it well.

They let me in. o

[dalesys]

Uncle Bonsai (NSFW)

[MoonCat]

Irv, will it make you feel better if I admit that I wouldn't have known what a contour rug is? I know there are rugs that fit around the base of the toilet, but I didn't know they had a special name

I'm not very domestic.

[prjkt]

Heh similar story at one of my stores;
Father and daughter working together
Daughter (with bright pink hair mind you) asks customer if he needs a hand, older guy looks at her in disdain, "I'll wait for him" emphasising the gender.
Father finishes up with the customer he was serving, and the older guy asks him about a camera
"Hey (daughter), you have this camera , can you please help this gentleman?"

He didn't stick around for long

[Jester]

Basically the reverse of the people who don't think women who work in tech support/auto parts stores/gaming stores/auto repair shops know what they're talking about.

Unless you're talking about who can give birth, gender stereotypes are idiotic.

If you ever meet me and my siblings (myself, two sisters, a stepsister, and a stepbrother), good luck figuring out who flies planes, who jumps out of them, who wears steel-toed boots, who can work on cars, who is a demon with a hot glue gun, who is the most feared by most people, and who is talented at interior decorating.

We can all cook, by the way. Just some are better than others. And that doesn't fall along traditional gender lines, either. (At a guess, I'd say the order of best to worst in the kitchen among the five of us would be older sister, me, younger sister, stepbrother, stepsister. Not sure how much any of them would argue that, either.)

[Seshat]

Really, it was unfortunate for the women who refused to shop with him, because they missed out on his incredible knowledge and skills with fitting women's underpinnings.

The two women who used to work at a shop that used to be near us were that skilled at matching bras to people, too. Specialist 'odd sizes' lingerie shop. If you needed a 10DD or even an 8DD, they'd have it or could get it. And for me (18G), there were never less than eight different bras I could try on!


And for 'you have a penis therefore...'

My brother is a natural with young children. He's almost as pure-intellect-intelligent as me, and MUCH more social-intelligent and emotional-intelligent. And he LOVES being around young children, especially watching them learn, watching their developmental milestones, and helping them with them.
He has endless patience for helping a little one learn to catch a ball, draw with a crayon, put duplo together.

Natural early childhood teacher, yes? Yes.

<sigh>

We didn't dare. If he had innie bits, sure. But he's a he, not a she. Statistically, there'd be at least one accusation in the course of his professional career. Possibly more. And an accusation can ruin a person's life, even if it's withdrawn or fails in a court case.

He's often the Santa, the Easter Bunny, and other such characters at his church. With an escort. The escort being there for his sake as much as anything else.

[mathnerd]

Being active on a forum for teachers, I've had the pleasure of knowing a number of male elementary school teachers. Two of my favorites are kindergarten and first grade teachers. It's really infuriating to hear them tell stories of parents of girls insisting that their children be put in somebody else's class, simply because they are male.

[Deserted]

We can all cook, by the way. Just some are better than others. And that doesn't fall along traditional gender lines, either. (At a guess, I'd say the order of best to worst in the kitchen among the five of us would be older sister, me, younger sister, stepbrother, stepsister. Not sure how much any of them would argue that, either.)

My parents were in a vaguely similar situation. Dad was an outstanding (non-professional) cook; Mom could burn water...

[TopEndDave]

In regards to the story of Seshat's brother, I have a supporting story from an ex-flat mate, C.

Back in 1989 C had a job at a child care centre. He was an qualified assistant that did odd jobs like preparing food, cleaning the centre and changing nappies. Quite often at the end of his shift he would play with the kids for a bit. They loved him because he would play games that required a bit of strength (ie pushing high on swings or spinning the kids around). In 1990 the "Mr Bubbles" sexual abuse case broke in Sydney, a man working at his wife's child care centre was accused of sexually abusing the children. Suddenly, all the parents involved with the child care centre didn't want a man working in there and force C to leave the job. There had never been any hint of inappropriate behaviour by C. He wasn't sacked but his contract was not renewed and he didn't fight it as the parent's had made his job very difficult.

[Mr Hero]

He's often the Santa, the Easter Bunny, and other such characters at his church. With an escort. The escort being there for his sake as much as anything else.

At my church, I teach young children (6 and 7 years old). Because I'm male, there's another teacher there with me for the same reasons: to protect each other from false accusations.

[Seshat]

Poor C. And the kids, too. Someone like C or my brother can be a great 'uncle' figure for kids who don't have a father or uncle figure to associate with, too.