Lady Looks Like A Dude

[jjc927]

That person with the vegetables must have the appetite of a bratty 4 year old. And the salad person has the maturity of one.

[Jester]

Scurvy symptoms are unmistakeable. CustomersRuinMyLife would have seen her with bleeding gums, teeth either falling out or the gums overgrowing the teeth, visible severe bruising, old scars re-opened, old healed broken bones re-breaking, and in the later stages, everything that requires connective tissues .. failing.

Oddly, the symptoms of scurvy sound very much like the characteristics of Trailer Park Trash.

I'm not betting money either way on which of the two it is when I see people that look like that.....

[Seshat]

That .... disturbs me a LOT.

Scurvy is so very avoidable. And if they're getting scurvy, they doubtless have other deficiency diseases.

How can .. geesh. I ...

... I'm at a loss for words.

[Sleepwalker]

Usually when I mess up the gender, it is because I am looking at or talking to another person of that gender. Headsets are the bane of my attention challenged existence.

[Kogarashi]

Not totally your fault. So many men carry their excess fat in only their stomach, that they look like they are expecting. I mean, you should see what some Wisconsin men look like. At least a few out of every dozen men have skinny arms, little chicken legs, and a huge protruding belly.

Saw one like that on our vacation last month. We were at the beach in RI, and I had to comment to my husband that I had just seen an old man who looked more pregnant than I. Bear in mind, I was seven months pregnant at the time. This old man was skinny all over, except his midsection, where it looked like he'd swallowed an exercise ball.

I've been mistaken for a guy before. Probably the most understandable was shortly after I got my hair cut super-short right before my senior year of high school. I was wearing a baggy t-shirt, which apparently managed to hide my...erm, huge tracts of land, and it would seem that I have a rather masculine face if my haircut is masculine enough. So the cashier at the store swiped my mom's discount card, then asked if "he" would be using it too, gesturing to me. Mom and I both cracked up laughing, and the poor confused casheir took a few moments to catch on before apologizing profusely and turning red with embarrassment.

Two other incidents are tied for most perplexing. One was just a month after the above incident, at school. It was Halloween, so half the student body was dressed up. I'd worn a black skirt, fitted red top, and my dad's near-floor-length vampire cape as a costume. From the front, there was no mistaking that I was a girl, even with the short hair. Now, for the record, my school usually had two or three guys in the student population who would cross-dress for Halloween each year. Also as a note, the girl whose locker was right next to mine had somehow managed to go two whole months without being at her locker at the same time as me, ever. Well, this day, she finally showed up while I was getting books out. She looked me over, then asked, "are you supposed to be some sort of cross-dresser?" I stared in surprise before squeaking, "Me?" in about the girliest tone of voice I could manage (surprising, since I have a husky alto voice normally), and like the cashier, she realized her mistake and apologized.

The other time was at college. By this point in time, my hair had grown long enough to pull back in a respectable ponytail, and the university I attended had a dress code that was very clear as to the standards of men's hair length (with exceptions for religious or health reasons). I was working an on-campus job, and admittedly in an oversized work shirt because it was the only one that fit my wide shoulders and large chest. A lady came into the grill and tried to get my attention as I was facing away from her. All I heard was, "Sir? Sir? Sir!" from behind me, and didn't respond because I am very much not a Sir. I finally glanced over when it seemed no one else was helping her, and she was looking at me. Long hair, female chest that should've been somewhat obvious even despite the oversized shirt, and this particular lady never once considered that maybe I was not a guy. That one still confuses me.

[NateTheChops]

What are vegetables?

RW: Same thing. I don’t like anything on this menu. I will have a bottle of wine instead.

I wanted a bottle of wine after dealing with her.

And for desert I'd like Bloody Mary. But without the green stick thingy, cause that's animal food. And the red stuff, skip that entirely because it looks like blood and who would want to drink blood?

Lady Looks Like a Dude

That came up so often when I was working at Rank Aid. And the way they get surprised/offended surprises me. It's like, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to discriminate, but as GK mentioned we have to personalize our work. And if you're wearing gender neutral clothing and you look more masculine than a former marine, I'm going to make assumptions.

[XCashier]

Sadly, I know parents who aren't teaching their kids how to eat right, and their dinner consists of Chef Boyardee and Spaghettios. It's really sad, and no amount of criticism from her family will persuade her to change her ways.

Ironically, everyone else in the extended family are really good cooks and eat relatively healthy.

The kid could be an extremely picky eater, and the family are just tired of fighting it.

I've been called "sir" and referred to as a "guy", even though I strongly resemble the women in Peter Paul Rubens' paintings. And I have seen women that could be mistaken for men, right down to the facial hair (I usually try to avoid gender-specific pronouns with them).

[Jay 2K Winger]

The other time was at college. By this point in time, my hair had grown long enough to pull back in a respectable ponytail, and the university I attended had a dress code that was very clear as to the standards of men's hair length (with exceptions for religious or health reasons). I was working an on-campus job, and admittedly in an oversized work shirt because it was the only one that fit my wide shoulders and large chest. A lady came into the grill and tried to get my attention as I was facing away from her. All I heard was, "Sir? Sir? Sir!" from behind me, and didn't respond because I am very much not a Sir. I finally glanced over when it seemed no one else was helping her, and she was looking at me. Long hair, female chest that should've been somewhat obvious even despite the oversized shirt, and this particular lady never once considered that maybe I was not a guy. That one still confuses me.

Maybe she was trying to pull a reverse Python?

"Excuse me, Miss?"
"What do you mean, 'Miss'?"
"...I'm sorry, I have a cold."

[taxguykarl]

Query: On the second SC, Mr. Side salad 4 free, did they have to pay for their meals? Or were they just ejected?

[customersruinmylife]

Query: On the second SC, Mr. Side salad 4 free, did they have to pay for their meals? Or were they just ejected?

You pay at the bar once you order, so yes, they had already paid.

[MoonCat]

I heard a program once on BBC radio about eating habits in the UK, and they were asking people about their diets. When they asked a child in Scotland about things like lettuce, etc., he said, "I wouldn't eat that muck!" So that became a quote in our house whenever we come across something we wouldn't eat.

[Seshat]

And for desert I'd like Bloody Mary. But without the green stick thingy, cause that's animal food. And the red stuff, skip that entirely because it looks like blood and who would want to drink blood?

Or the vodka (I think it's vodka for a Bloody Mary? Jester, please don't kill me if I'm wrong), because that's made of either potatoes or grain. And they're both vegetation.


Thinking about scurvy, other symptoms include lassitude and lack of motivation. Usually mistaken, in the height of the Tall Ships sailing era, for laziness and apathy.

I assume that also sounds Trailer-Trash-ish?

If so... it's entirely possible that you have a whole subculture of people with deficiency diseases.



On the 'looking like a dude' front: It's been said before, but women with PCOS (and some other hormone disorders) can develop the masculine hair patterns, body fat patterns, and the like. I have to deal with a mustache that would make a teen boy feel proud, and an extremely sparse 'beard'.

[ShadowBall]

Mistaken gender goes the other way too. My best friend in school was a guy with a very high-pitched voice, and any time we'd order pizza, he'd have me place the order because the restaurant owner would always call him "Ma'am" and it pissed him off. He even looked a little girly - had some tiny moobs, somewhat feminine curves. If it weren't for his soul patch, he could pass for a girl with a small cup size.

My ex was once also mistaken for a woman. One of my mother's co-workers saw me kissing him and told my mom I was kissing another woman. When Mom asked, the co-worker said, "Well I know it was another woman because she had long hair and her boobs were bigger than Shadowball's!" At the time, my ex had shoulder-length hair and he's a pretty big guy, so he does have some pretty big guy-boobs.

And as far as scurvy, I am amazed to hear people still get it now. I've heard of little kids having it because they would only eat one food and their parents were too spineless to make them eat something else or give them vitamins. And these were not poor people either - they could afford food just fine, but the kids just wouldn't eat anything else.

[Seshat]

And as far as scurvy, I am amazed to hear people still get it now. I've heard of little kids having it because they would only eat one food and their parents were too spineless to make them eat something else or give them vitamins. And these were not poor people either - they could afford food just fine, but the kids just wouldn't eat anything else.

Scurvy, beriberi and other deficiency diseases are currently most common in war-ravaged or drought-ravaged countries. Those photographs of children with the bloated bellies and skeletal bodies depict deficiency diseases, as well as the result of starvation.

But for deficiency diseases to be so blatantly visible in a first world country, in a place which it is easy to transport food to, leads me to think something's gone very wrong.

(We do have some parts of Australia where we're not doing things right, ourselves. Sometimes it's a cultural problem, most often it's a distance problem or a combination of distance and culture.
We're tackling the cultural problem by training willing Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islanders in medical or educational skills and sending them to the communities that need help and will only accept it from someone of their culture.
The distance problem... is harder.)

[LillFilly]

So, the lady that looked like a dude that was fighting, did she look something like this? :
http://images.bimedia.net/images/110...t_of_store.jpg

That's the lady who was kicked-out of wal mart because she refused to wear something over her bikini. Seriously, that's her.