I often get called "sir" by rather vague young clerks. I usually just stare at them until they correct themselves. But even worse, a couple times I have been asked if I was a nun ... now that really hurts!
I often get called "sir" by rather vague young clerks. I usually just stare at them until they correct themselves. But even worse, a couple times I have been asked if I was a nun ... now that really hurts!
Knott, I have no idea how you could be mistaken for a man.
2014 Bobbin Bramble / Brooks B67
2008 Rodriguez Rainier Mirage / Terry Butterfly Tri Gel
2007 Dahon Speed Pro TT / Biologic Velvet
The last couple years I've had young boys asking me if I was a boy or a girl. I think the 3 year old was keying off my unshaved legs, and the 7 year old is at "that age" (he keeps asking me if I wear a bra - I don't). I did freak someone out in the restroom at a movie theater once last year while standing around in my bike helmet. I always wear men's pants or shorts and unisex shirts and have fairly short hair.
Actually, I wish I would have been mistaken for a boy on the phone in the 70s. Instead, when I answered the phone in the bike shop, people would ask to speak to a mechanic (arg!!!, as if a woman can't be a mechanic). That used to really drive me nuts. Now people are generally please to see a woman mechanic in a shop. Though one elderly man a couple months ago ask the manager if I was his wife (as if that's the only reason a woman would work in a shop). The manager handled it well by replying that I was an experienced mechanic.
Oil is good, grease is better.
2007 Peter Mooney w/S&S couplers/Terry Butterfly
1993 Bridgestone MB-3/Avocet O2 Air 40W
1980 Columbus Frame with 1970 Campy parts
1954 Raleigh 3-speed/Brooks B72
What's your Q-angle?
I'm sitting here right now at the intermission of a Steve Earle concert. When his guitar player walked onstage with his male pattern baldness, masculine jaw, hint of facial hair and thick wrists, my lizard brain still said "woman." With this thread fresh in my mind, it didn't take me long to figure out that his hips were the reason.
Speed comes from what you put behind you. - Judi Ketteler
I've got an extreme q-angle.
Profoundly hour-glass curves.
Big bazoongas.
Dainty tiny (very tiny) wrists and ankles.
Always dressed "girly", always in at least a little make-up, feminine bobbed hair which is always done up in some way.
But ever since I was a teenager, I get mistaken for a man. Like I said earlier, it has happened even when wearing a camisole and miniskirt.
I just don't know.
"If Americans want to live the American Dream, they should go to Denmark." - Richard Wilkinson
It sounds like maybe it's your height more than anything else.
I'm 5'2" and have never been called "sir", even when dressed extremely unisex and right after a haircut.
That must suck, though.![]()
Emily
2011 Jamis Dakar XC "Toto" - Selle Italia Ldy Gel Flow
2007 Trek Pilot 5.0 WSD "Gloria" - Selle Italia Diva Gel Flow
2004 Bike Friday Petite Pocket Crusoe - Selle Italia Diva Gel Flow
I bet the height thing is it.
You have the best cheekbones around, girl.
"My predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved;I have been given much and I have given something in return...Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and an adventure." O. Sacks
I too am short, although with a scandanavian type face, not blonde, flat and I wear my hair in a number 6 buzz. My voice is somewhat low, and I am soft spoken. I am addressed as sir more often than I am as maam, even here is Texas where all the real men are real men. And the majority of women have two huge boobs rather than one fried egg like me, wear makeup unlike me, and are usually wearing coordinated jewelry, purse, cell phone, and lipstick while I wander around in ride t shirts, cargo pants and carry a wallet, so I guess I can't really blame them.
The fun thing about all this is that I also have a very high silly giggle, which I employ every time someone addresses me as sir. It may not change things but it makes me feel better. I so love flaunting stereotypes.
marni
Katy, Texas
Trek Madone 6.5- "Red"
Trek Pilot 5.2- " Bebe"
"easily outrun by a chihuahua."
Marni, if that's you in your avatar, I don't know how anyone could mistake you for a man!
Last edited by OakLeaf; 07-29-2011 at 05:07 AM.
Speed comes from what you put behind you. - Judi Ketteler
I really think it has to do with hair, in our (US) society women are "supposed" to have long hair. I've had little kids ask me if I was a boy or a girl when I was at the pool wearing a swimsuit.
Electra Townie 7D
It's weird, but when I was heavier and did all my shopping in the women's department I got "sirred" quite a lot. Now that I'm so thin that I end up wearing boy's clothes much of the time, I don't. (Boy's shorts have usable pockets, women's size 0/2 generally don't). Still have wide shoulders and narrow hips and short hair, and sometimes wear training bras, as it's awfully hard to find AA cups elsewhere. You'd think I'd get "sirred" more now, wouldn't your?
Fancy Schmancy Custom Road bike ~ Mondonico Futura Legero
Found on side of the road bike ~ Motobecane Mixte
Gravel bike ~ Salsa Vaya
Favorite bike ~ Soma Buena Vista mixte
Folder ~ Brompton
N+1 ~ My seat on the Rover recumbent tandem
https://www.instagram.com/pugsley_adventuredog/
White women, anyway. A lot of Black women cut their hair very closely (maybe more fashionable a couple of years back than it is now) and still look quite feminine.
But yeah - hair in combination with features goes a long way I think. There was a head-and-shoulders picture of someone in our local paper yesterday. Prominent jaw, high cheekbones, and gelled straight hair about an inch, inch and a half long. The name was kind of androgynous and the story didn't use any pronouns or gender-identifying words. I thought it was a man until another story today said it was a woman.
Can't say what I might've thought if I'd seen the rest of her body, though.
Speed comes from what you put behind you. - Judi Ketteler
Dunno what to make of it.
Even dressed in a military(ish) suit with a sash and medals with a beard (a good fake beard, stuck on in bits) and a fresh boy's haircut, I couldn't even get anyone to think I was a guy. Not even the kids at school. Not strangers, not anyone.
Each day is a gift, that's why it is called the present.