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Gold Member
We go out to eat regularly at a local restaurant. One of the staff had me baffled. Was this person a male or a female? I could not for the life of me decide which it was and to ask the person upfront...well it seemed extremely rude. "How would you feel if someone asked if you were a boy or a girl", I asked myself. I thought I would be hurt or insulted. I would have felt my gender should have been obvious to everyone. So it was, "hey kiddo" when addressing this person. (much younger person so thought I could pull that one off with minimal hurt or insult)
I found out the correct gender by doing what should have been obvious. I introduced myself and asked for a name. Thankfully it was not one of those names that could go either way. Whew!! My backup plan was to play extremely dense and ask what Chris or Pat (for examples) was short for. I would rather be seen as a bit slow than cruel or hurtful.
The moral of the story, please know that not everyone means to insult or hurt someone else when using the wrong pro-noun. Hey maybe they need some new glasses or the lighting is poor. Or they may not be sure and make a guess. And dang if they didn't guess wrongly. :Angry3:
I do believe the person owed you an apology at the very least. So on behalf of the ignore masses let me say it, "We're sorry." OTOH perhaps their momma didn't teach them any manners? Or they just didn't get their bottoms spanked enough as a kid?
After five kids I'm an old hand at it, let me at em!
Next time someone addresses you with the wrong pronoun respond in kind. Some guy addresses you as miss? Then you reply and address him as miss. Sometimes a return volley is effective.
Hang in there capt. Soon there will be absolutely no way anyone will see you as anything other than what you are ~ male. Bank on it.
dancin
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