That story about the woman who got doused with red wine? I had a similar experience and similarly laughed it off. As a server was setting a nice large martini (with a lemon twist, not an olive) in front of me his hand trembled for some reason and the whole thing went down the front of my shirt. The look of horror on…

Once, an 8-top of Christians left one of those “Here’s a Tip for You!” pamphlets on my table, in lieu of a cash tip. I was sort of used to this, so I didn’t remark much, just tossed it into the bus tub with the rest of the debris, and a glower.

I’m a little late but here goes. I worked in a Gay Dennys in Arizona and soon after gay marriage became legal, I had the most adorable elderly couple of men, one white, one black. They were seated at the counter and had on these beautiful leis. I asked if I could feel the real flowers and asked what the occasion was.…

I once had a customer who ordered a cheeseburger with Swiss but got cheddar. When the mistake was realized, I apologized and offered her a free cookie. She replied, “Honey, if this is the worse thing to happen to be today, then I’ve got a pretty good life.” After getting bitched at by stuck up college kids and…

Nightmare doesn’t even begin to cover Tony Abbott. He’s like a demon-spawn in Christian clothing. He’s a racist/sexist pig, his government is a joke that does its best to foster an environment of tension and hatred in this country, and their policies are most often repugnant and cruel.

It’s not going to hit the areas that really need it though, I mean the worst area for not vaccinating in W.A is Freo, and thats not exactly an area full of people who will be hurting for that money, plus I believe there is going to be a religious exemption which is super dumb. I just think this is a poorly thought out…

Seems a good idea but it is being brought in by Tony Abbott. This does not compute...

I don’t fly that often, but when I do, I get two bins at the security checkpoint, one for my shoes and the other for my laptop. After going through security, I grab all my stuff and if there are spare bins, I stack them up with mine and put them on the stack of other bins. I don’t do this because I’m female, I do this…

Thanks for these posts. What I hate is behavior correction. For example, I was working in the library with a colleague, in an area that allows conversation. As two young PhD students working on a joint presentation for a workshop we were attending, we discussed rather quietly the outline of the talk. An older man (who…

I expect that many people (not just men) would react to this by saying, “men are asked to do similar menial tasks that are “traditionally masculine” so this is fair and you’re reading too much into it. It’s not really sexism.” To them:

And I usually have a firmer handshake than some of those limp cod-ass motherfuckers, too.

This is why the term “microaggression” is a very real thing, even if people roll their eyes at it.... It’s all the cumulative little things, the background radiation, that adds up to the message of You Are Not Wanted or You Are Insufficient.

I totally see your point, and I think having a non-confrontational attitude when discussing issues like this does help, but I don’t really think “not meaning it that way” should be an acceptable excuse. It’s the prejudices we don’t realize we have which are the most dangerous, and as such, I think it’s the nature of…

My sister works in a hospital, as a doctor. She gets called nurse ALL THE TIME, despite the white coat. I keep telling her to go all Dr. Evil on them, but she just rolls with it. She’s nicer than me.

"Oh, are you the paralegal?"

I was told that my attire was “too corporate” and that I should try to “soften” my look up. My normal attire is button down shirts and slacks, just like the other (male) employees. I asked what the clothing allowance was so that I could replace my presumably offensive wardrobe on the company’s dime.

I work in education, specifically special education, so this isn’t usually an issue at my school site, though I have seen instances where, say, a male psychologist on the team insists that he is the only person who makes eligibility decisions, when in fact those are team decisions.