What acts of sexism have you encountered today?

[BertieBotts]

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where we can come on and post any day-to-day sexism/effects of sexism, thinking mainly low-level things, but big things are alright to post too of course. I thought it might be eye-opening (if depressing) to collate how much crap there is to deal with on a daily basis.

I'll start - while listening to music on spotify, having to listen to an unskippable ad for a rap artist playing a clip of his song which includes the lyrics We bring the women and the cars and the cards out

The other one I can think of (which fair enough was during a seminar about feminism) was a guy in my class who kept saying things like "Well yes women are paid less than men/women are vastly underrepresented in parliament/rape conviction rates are ridiculously low. [etc] But that's just the way it is. It's the same in all societies that I know of. I don't know what you can do about it."

Anyone else?

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

a heavily male-dominated CBeebies schedule

[Blackduck]

Being described as agressive when I am pretty sure if a man had behaved as I had done the worst that would have been said was 'forceful'

[msrisotto]

Attending a lecture about the law and mental health and knowing the (foreign) name of the presenter beforehand but assuming it belonged to a male.

[DirtyMartini]

'alright love' from a delivery driver dropping off a parcel.

[howdidthishappenthen]

Absolutely none. Plus, was please to host a playdate with a newly divorced mum and find that she's busy setting up her own business, and to call a couple of the big accountancy firms for a quote on some due diligence work, and get half the calls answered by women partners. A good day :-)

[YouMakeMeWannaLaLa]

I have come home early from a drink with colleagues because someone smacked my bum when I was at the bar. I turned round and there was no obvious culprit (it was a packed bar) and the pathetic, humiliated part of me didn't want to make a scene.

I told one of my colleagues, who giggled , so I made my excuses and left. I was about to go anyway but it ruined the night for me. And, of course, I was very jumpy on the way home.

Really fucking stung as well.

[ZuzuBailey]

But are you sure it was a male hand that smacked your bum LaLa?

[YouMakeMeWannaLaLa]

No, no idea who it was.

If an anonymous woman had smacked me it would have been fine and not painful and humiliating

[GrimmaTheNome]

Just the usual:
'Whats for dinner?'

[ZuzuBailey]

LaLa you obviously felt hurt & humiliated by the smack on the bum which was an assault, whoever did it to you. It was wrong and I can imagine it was a horrible experience.

I was challenging your automatic assumption that it must have been a male who hit you.

Whose behaviour was sexist?

[msrisotto]

Zuzu - what's the likelihood here? I have never had a woman pat my bum randomly, it's completely bizarre that you are suggestion that Lala might be being sexist by assuming it was a man!

[PenguinArmy]

The looks I usually get when I hand over DD to DH and say goodbye as I get the bus to work. He often walks me to the stop. Though I normally get a few smiles as well.

[YouMakeMeWannaLaLa]

I didn't automatically assume it was a male, I never said I did.

Whoever hit me felt they had the right to touch, hurt and humiliate me and it made me feel objectified and 'under threat' in a way it possibly wouldn't have affected a male. Can't you see that?

[BingBongSong]

Long time lurker here :).

I have been a member of a discussion forum relating to my ethnicity for 10 years now. I've made a few good friends there, and it helped me with my sense of identity, so I feel a sense of affinity with it. Left it for a while, but returned at the back end of last year. It has become increasingly dominated by a few noisy posters, who express casually sexist views on a regular basis.

There have been a couple of threads discussing gender issues, including rape, to which I was contributing. It felt like banging my head against a brick wall. I was told that I (and feminists) were conditioned by society. There was a lot of emphasis on the responsibility of women to avoid/prevent rape rather than the responsibility of men not to rape. The thread specifically about rape degenerated into jokes and "recommendations" - and I snapped and said that societal attitudes regarding rape, were one of the reasons why rape still happened - because by and large men got away with it. Used the terms "rape deniers" and "rape apologists". I was then called "immature, militant and part of the problem".

It has actually made me feel - decided it was pointless spending time there, as I felt I was achieving nothing. Have since looked at how to make a tangible difference through volunteering. But feel bad about giving up with that particular audience.

It shouldn't bug me, but it does .

[annapolly]

My DS 10 asked me what a lesbian is. I explained. He said it sounded like a good idea two mums and no dad.

He then said he had spotted a flaw in the plan as two women would try to clean the same spot, argue about it and nothing would get done.

He thinks he is funny

[BertieBotts]

This morning when trying to find a breakfast radio show to settle on for my alarm clock, I noticed that every single breakfast show has a male presenter, with the female (if she exists) as a sort of accessory. Even if the the show is titled as though they are equal e.g. "Holly and James Breakfast Show" the male presenter STILL has a more major role, being the one to decide on competitions, stay in the studio while she goes out doing some "feature", etc.

I have never noticed this before (though it has been a while since I've listened to breakfast radio)

[jenny60]

Logging on to see the nearly naked women draped all over the products on the Made.com website. So unbelievably offensive for a supposedly innovative company . Will complain when I have a minute.

//www.made.com

[kittya]

Just saw on a friends fb page some debating about the royal wedding and the things some of those blokes were saying about Kate and Diana made me go cold.

[lindseyjane28]

I am a civil engineer and I have lost count over the many times I have turned up to meetings and have either been mistaken for someone who is taking the minutes or that work have sent the wrong person (my name could actually be a male name), or being mistaken for being a junior engineer when I am often the lead design engineer. The worst instance was about 9 years ago being asked in an interview if I wanted children and when would that be etc which was none of their business! Strangely doesn't bother me that much or maybe I have just got used to it, at the end of the day I know I am good at my job, more competent than many of my male colleagues and let my work do the talking.