Was I the asshole?

He was an asshole but you could have moved!!

Op, you are wasting an awful lot of mental energy on something totally irrelevant. Should you have moved for the photo? Yes. That is all. Don’t over think it. Not everything in life is something to get riled up about. You are literally shortening your own life span.

If you're going to quote me, you may wish to quote the post in its entirety.

Yes, you were the arsehole. Moving away for a few seconds so he could take a picture would have done you no harm, you just wanted to be an arsehole for the sake of it.

If he had been polite, I’d have moved. But not when I’m shooed like a stray cat.
YANBU.

Although I am a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, I genuinely don't view this interaction as being an example of sexism. The fact that he didn't ask the man to move means nothing.

Yes, it is entirely possible that the hand gesture he made is perfectly acceptable in his culture. Without knowing which culture that is, I have no idea if that's the case.

But why wouldn't you step aside so he could take a picture? It is such a minor inconvenience that I hesitate to call it an inconvenience at all. Although I am a dyed-in-the-wool feminist, I genuinely don't view this interaction as being an example of sexism. The fact that he didn't ask the man to move means nothing. Maybe he thought there was no point in making the request again, after your response.

YANBU I think you might have moved if he'd asked respectfully. I do think that photography has gone mad these days. I am short and often can't see objects of interest because of a sea of arms, iphones and ipads.

It particularly made me sad at Christ Church Oxford recently, I've no clear memory of what we'd seen. It even seems to happens at the theatre lately. It would be nice to be able to contemplate things without feeling under pressure to move.

Yes, we were asked at London Zoo by a couple of teachers if we could get out of the way of the ‘London Zoo’ sign so that they could take a picture of it. We had our picnic spread out!! They wanted to put the whole group next to the sign. We did move but I don’t think we would do again on reflection. Talk about entitled!

As usual it’s not what you say it’s how you say it. Even if the man spoke a different language he could have smiled, pointed to his camera and then the sculpture. The op would have understood what he meant and probably moved.

If you want someone to do something which benefits you better to be nice to them.

I would have done exactly the same as you in that situation. Why does his wish to take a picture take a priority over you looking at it? Sounds like classic male entitlement to me @BadLayout

He probably didn't want to upset a strange woman by taking a photo that she is in without her permission. If he just wanted you to move for a second, I'd just have done that.
Now, if he was setting up to do an influencer video, then you wouldn't be unreasonable.

Well was that when people didn’t take photos all the time? Maybe when they had film in their camera that limited the amount of photos you could take.
I have always waited and never asked someone to move for a photo.

This happened to me once. There was a long sign with the name of the town in large letters and it had a bench in front of it.
I was sitting on the bench to the side but still in front of the sign along with a few other people
A young guy can't along and asked us to ask to move so that he could be in a photo in front of the sign. He gestured his request.
None of us moved and he was very irritated.
I think he was being unreasonable and so was your guy OP

If they asked politely, I’d have no issues. Wafting and ‘shooing’ me, probably not tbh.

OP, why ask AIBU when every single POV that differs with yours, you take issue with. You obviously are quite proud of your little defiance, and want everyone else to agree.

Photo bombed? I don't think Op was doing that.

They don’t need to because people have already courteously not photo bombed.

Presumably not after they've rudely shooed you away?

Strange how he didn't shoo the man away then! Surely he would've ruined his 'nice photo' too.

There are ways of asking if you don't speak the same language. He was rude. I bet your bottom dollar he wouldn't have done that to a man.

It completely depends on how he asked, and it sounds like he was very rude about it. I almost always move or wait when I see people taking photos, but if I was waved or shooed, I will take my sweet time.

He could have just taken the photo and if you were visible in it, its easy enough to edit you out. I do that all the time with my holiday pics. Delete all the people from the beach etc 😃

I would have moved had he asked politely.
Shooing me with his hand?
Nope. I stay put. Fuck that.