Weird question: Has anyone here ever...

[spokewench]

... been mistaken for a boy?

Aside from a mistake in a race where they put me in the 35-39 MALE category, it seems to be happening with greater frequency. Last summer, I was taking a break from work at Del Mar and a security guard came up from behind me and asked, "Are you lost, son?"
I thought is was a fluke. My friends had a good laugh over it. But it has happened more times this year, usually by salespeople.

I don't wear makeup very often (two-a-day workouts put an end to that) and if I have no reason to Dress-to-Impress I'm usually in yoga-type clothes or fitness apparel. I don't wear men's clothes, but I'm not the flowers-n-pink type person, either. I admit I don't exactly have a lot of curves (5-1, size 0), but I'm a 39 y.o. old woman and I'm starting to get a complex.

Am I alone in this?

I didn't see this thread until now. LOL Bluetree - you are way too cute to be taken for a boy! But I can see the mistake from behind. My Mom is 5'0" and always was very slim and petite. We have some pictures of her in boy jeans from the back when were out fishing in a Kansas pond - I'm pretty sure I could have mistaken her for a boy if I didn't know it was my Mom.

Don't worry about what other people say - you really are pretty and the authentic you is way prettier than any fake, enhanced, blond California hopeful.

Well, so now, let me tell you a story. You know that I used to work on the Thoroughbred horse race track and back then I was a skinny, no make-up, in jeans and tee shirt, hard working, strong armed kind of gal, short hair and all. Well, one day I was in New Orleans and we went down to go to the bars and a couple of male jockeys and I went into a gay bar. We didn't know it at first cause there weren't many people in there when we first went in. You can imagine it's these two very small men and me, a pretty small woman, all sitting there bsing and drinking. After a while this really funny looking guy in some really wild colored clothing came up to me and asked me if he could buy me a drink. Yep, he thought I was a gay guy! Boy, did I take some ribbing for that for a very long time from my colleagues.

[mimitabby]

Well, so now, let me tell you a story. You know that I used to work on the Thoroughbred horse race track and back then I was a skinny, no make-up, in jeans and tee shirt, hard working, strong armed kind of gal, short hair and all. Well, one day I was in New Orleans and we went down to go to the bars and a couple of male jockeys and I went into a gay bar. We didn't know it at first cause there weren't many people in there when we first went in. You can imagine it's these two very small men and me, a pretty small woman, all sitting there bsing and drinking. After a while this really funny looking guy in some really wild colored clothing came up to me and asked me if he could buy me a drink. Yep, he thought I was a gay guy! Boy, did I take some ribbing for that for a very long time from my colleagues.

Well, Spoke, at least they thought you were the cutest!

[Bluetree]

My gay (male) friends always have the best taste!

[Pax]

My gay (male) friends always have the best taste!

So true! I miss my friend Drew, he would walk into our house and just shake his head..."oh honey, you gals have got to STOP lining your furniture up along the wall, this is a home not a hospital waiting room!".

[pyxichick]

More mistaken for a guy stories...

My mom and sister are both on the ambulance service in a small town in WI. One day after riding for two hours in the back of the ambulance with a patient, he turned to my sister (who is 45) and said "young man, shouldn't you be in school?"

Another time my mom and sister were on the same ambulance run and the patient looked at them (they both have short hair) and asked "are you brothers?" and my mom said "yeah, he's older" and pointed at my sister.

It's all about the short hair. I haven't been mistaken for a boy ever since I grew my hair out to a short bob, but I guarantee that if it got shorter it would happen again.