ManFriday, thank you! Yesterday I.....

@overnightangel

it’s nothing to do with being a man or a woman

Of course not

If you’re left handed your natural inclination is to go left, if you’re right handed you tend to go right, it’s nothing to do with being a man or a woman

Juells yes there is a risk of being knocked over, but I've found that, because I'm braced for it and the bloke isn't because he's assuming I'll move at the last moment, we tend to more bounce off each other rather than me fall over, and I'm quite a small woman.

This also reminds me of my years of travelling on the Tube, when I used to womanspread whenever I was sat next to a manspreader, and often ended up in a situation where both of us had our legs firmly braced in position against each other's as neither were willing to cede the territory - some men, though, would move, often with some muttering and huffing. I made sure never to cross the boundary of my territory and I was always ready to point that out if challenged, but no man ever challenged me directly even though I was young and quite girly in appearance then.

What do two men do when they meet on a path, is it like a staredown?

Maybe they unconsciously tend to pass on the left (in the U.K.)? I hadn't realised till I lived in the US and found myself facing people in corridors more often that there does seem to be some tendency to walk on the same side as you'd drive. I needed to switch to the right.

So I'd recommend picking the left side of the pavement for your unswerving walks.

What a great thread!

I'm also the untidy one in my house. Nobody would even dream of asking me the location of anything.

But I'm going to stop swerving for men from today onwards!

Missing items - if I do know where it is then a mild 'have you looked on your desk?' otherwise 'do you want help looking for that? Where might you have last had it?' (It's still not My Problem but I'm being helpful and getting them to engage their brain). Or sometimes (this one is probably better for kids TBH) 'I'll come and look but if I find it somewhere obvious where you should have looked I will be very cross' (nearly always resulted in child scuttling off and finding item... I didn't have to use it very often)

I've been a conscious walker... duck and dive if it's crowded but otherwise stride purposefully.

What do two men do when they meet on a path, is it like a staredown?

It can be a good way to get knocked flying, though.

I've started walking towards men in straight lines too, whenever I remember I can't believe how automatic and entrenched the swerve manoeuvre is.

I use the below when asked where stuff is

Be me and look for it

No one would ever ask me where anything was. I'm famously chaotic. Undiagnosed, but by my reading I'm dyspraxic.

But I do that walking in straight lines thing all the time, though now I'm second guessing myself, so will check when I walk into town later.

Thanks for that link floorplan, I enjoyed the read.

timeline.com/iceland-womens-strike-1975-d3fc44a116cf

We could take a lesson or two from the Iceland women's national strike

Brilliant. I’m trying hard not to answer the “where is my...” questions. Apparently because I tidy up more I should know where stuff is.

For no reason I have ever been able to figure out a friend of mine always responded to a "where is" question with the statement that "if it were up your butt you would know it."
Rude crude but effective.

LightofaSilveryMoon well done old chap

I've started doing that don't swerve for a man thing. I hadn't even noticed it before it was brought up on here < feminism fail >

I'm doing it quite a lot now and it's both amusing and liberating.

On a personal level whenever my DC or DH asks 'where's my ... ?' I sit resolutely silent. I'm not your fecking mum, PA, or memory - sort it out yourselves. I'm finding it quite hard not to slip into default mode of being everyone's brain and memory. Any tips?

LightofaSilveryMoon

If MN had a like button I'd be liking your post right now.