Have you ever mistaken a woman for a man?

There were also only 3-4 people on it if it is the same one I saw!

I've been mistaken for a male before. I really, really don't look anything but female. Breasts, hips, hair, voice, size of hands and feet. I couldn't tell you if I've made a similar mistake, because I never corrected people who called me son or sir. Not that there have been many, but it's not zero.

I'd be too embarrassed anyway. Unless the person was OBVIOUSLY a man (like they had a beard or I saw a pee-pee), I daren't challenge them. OK a few men might get thru but not as many as under the previous rules.

I sometimes was mistaken for a boy when I was younger. I had very short hair, no make up and lived in jeans and baggy tshirts. I'd get called Son but as soon as someone properly looked at me they'd realise I wasn't.
I have sometimes been unsure when I've seen photos of people.There was a display of photos of the board at my local.hospital and one woman looked ambiguous. But when I saw her in real life it was obvious she was female.
In recent years I've noticed the 'fashion' for many women and girls is a somewhat exaggerated pornified Kardashian type look. Very heavy make up, nails, extensions, lip fillers, huge fake lashes, revealing clothing..When I went out with women from work I may have looked masculine next to them.
I never wear makeup up these days as when I see myself in the mirror I feel like I look a drag queen. I probably don't but that's my perception.I don't doubt that some women get challenged in toilets but I find it hard to believe that once they spoke or interacted, people would continue insisting they were male. But I'm sure it happens occasionally.
I'm also sure that the current hysteria about how women are now going to get challenged in toilets is another TRA tactic.
All of a sudden they are concerned about gender non conforming women and transmen. Give me a break

I got mistaken for a man once when going into a public toilet. It completely knocked my confidence then. I had long hair, make up on and was wearing jeans, trainers, a plain top and a leather jacket. I am quite tall but also have hips and giant boobs.

I stopped to hold the door for a woman a few steps behind me. She then proceeded to tell me that she was glad I did that because she was just about to call security to report a man going into the ladies toilet. She saw my confusion and decided to give me some more detail: how I looked so manly in my manly clothes and was sooooo tall. 8 years later, I still remember every detail of this delightful chat.

No. Doesn't happen. It's scaremongering.

Females have wider hips (whether teeny tiny size 4 or much larger)

Females have different jaw lines, brows, foreheads
Different hair distribution.

We can pretend. But 9 times out of 10- a trans person doesn't "pass". We know.

But I wasn't guessing, I could tell which were male and which were female, shoulder shape alone was enough but that is just one of many subtle differences between male and female that enable us to distinguish someone's sex.

If it was that hard to tell how come not a single one of the many, many hookups brought back to my student house share (some women, some men, some gay, some straight) resulted in 'ooops sorry I thought you were a guy/girl'. Between the 7 rooms for 4 years that particular coin got tossed many times and no one got it wrong. Clare didn't have to go straight for a night because she was too embarrassed to tell a guy she thought he was a woman, Dave didn't run screaming from his room because the 'girl' he brought back turned out to be a man. As a species we are pretty good at sexing each other.

The focus on toilets is a red herring. I don’t care if we all use the same public toilets. I don’t want men in women’s prisons or refuges, or men committing crimes and skewing stats by claiming to be women.

“There were several different clips of different people - I correctly sexed them all”

Say by “several different people” you mean around 5 people.
If you decided to choose male or female by tossing a coin, you’d still have a 1 in 4 chance of getting them all correct.

Have I ever mistaken...

•a butch lesbian for a man? Never.

•a woman who has lost her hair due to chemo or breasts due to surgery for a man? Nope.

•a black woman, or a woman 'from another culture', for a man? No.

I've seen these crop up as likely scenarios on X since Wednesday and the last one is particularly gross; black women's womanhood used to be cited as some kind of gotcha when transactivism first gained the kind of turbo-traction which has landed us where we are today: "Transwomen are just another category of woman, like... black women! See, you wouldn't exclude black women from women's sports and spaces, would you!?" Misogyny and racism rolled into one.

When I grew up, one of my mum's friends had a full, chest-length beard and moustache, never wore make-up, smoked a pipe and wore blue overalls. Not once was I uncertain about her sex.

I'd rather be questioned than have an actual guy in the women’s bathrooms

Cosigning this declaration. I said as much when someone last assumed that the large musical instrument outside the cubicle meant a man inside it. I was more annoyed that the interlocutor lacked the imagination to consider that women might play something big.

I'm tall (6ft ish) and quite athletic and muscly. I'm female/feminine presenting, in a low key way (minimal make up etc). I quite often see people looking at my feet to see how big they are, and I assume to check if they should think I'm trans (they're small, fwiw). It happens to other tall family members too and I have a very tall female cousin with strong features who gets it a lot. I get 'sir' a lot as well, and I've given up correcting people because they usually end up being embarassed and then it all gets awkward.

I find it intensely irritating. Tall women are already socialised into thinking they are taking up more than their fair share (i.e. not very much, given they're a woman) of space. It feels like quite an intense policing of my body. I love it when I go to the Netherlands or Germany and no one looks or comments.

So can people 'just tell'? My experience says they can't. I mean sure, if we had a proper chat then maybe they could.

I think single sex spaces are really important. I don't want to be policed out of them because I don't present as the average woman, though.

Not that I know of, no. My (then) 9 month old when I was asked if it was a boy or a girl (he was wearing a fluffy grey pram suit) a lady commented that he couldn't possibly be a boy he was too pretty 😂 & I was occasionally mistaken for a boy myself when I was 6 or 7 & had short hair (I wore t-shirts and shorts typically) but adults - no.

Yes, probably most of the time up until my late teens, in some cases it was in ways that was really embarrassing and public, but certainly not as an adult.

Me. I'm a non gender conforming butch lesbian. It used to happen literally all the time. Not so much now, still most weeks if I use a public toilet.
You cant tell me that it's rare! I used to get annoyed. I have to say all the trans focus means it happens to me much more often. Spikes in interest in toilet and trans issues really empower the amateur toilet police. I was once verbally abused in Cambridge, which you wouldn't expect, well I didn't. I was told that I was disgusting and should be ashamed of myself.
It's all very tedious to be on the receiving end. Only place it doesn't happen is in gay bars. Actually it has sort of happened a couple of times, a lot of straight women in gay bars and clubs, however on those occasions I felt empowered, and just grinned at the women who were about to say something. And yes I know when a woman in a queue for a toilet is about to say something.

i was in Sainsbury’s with my son (who has long red hair - age 13) and a lady commented on his shoe laces not being done up and how her daughter is the same and then, when he looked at her she corrected herself and said “ohhh! You’re a handsome boy!!”. It was a very good response to be fair and we both laugh about it now.

But a couple of weeks ago we went to a well known pizza restaurant and we were both referred to as “ladies” by the waiter… - he is clearly a boy. He’s just into rock music and wants his hair long.

We absolutely shouldn’t stereotype or just assume. However I do think “women” should be allowed secure spaces.

There has only been one time when I have been unsure of the sex of a person I met. They worked in a dive centre when we were on holiday and wore a short sports skirt but they had no bust and were quite lithely muscular. I can’t remember an Adam’s Apple and their voice was heavily accented so was no help.

Both DP and I were completely unable to tell.

No I haven't. Most people are just minding their own business and getting on with life anyway. The only way I would challenge someone would be if their behaviour was suspicious and I believed they had bad intentions.

This.
There has been so much focus on toilets since the judgement, but the real issue is in hospitals and women's prisons, refuges and rape crisis services. The only time I've felt uncomfortable in a women's changing room was in tkmaxx when a man was sitting in there on a bench while his wife was helping their daughters trying on clothes in one of the cubicles.
Very odd.

To echo posters above, I'm definitely female but don't wear dresses as I reckon I look like the blokes in the old Bounty kitchen paper ads.

@EatingTillIDie I think we may have been separated at birth.

I don't think I have but I do think it's easier for a FTM to "pass" as It's "adding" rather than "taking away". Testosterone "adds" the ability to grow facial hair etc and many transmen work hard at building muscle etc,. How hormones affect fat deposition etc I'm not sure. If I met someone who looked like Chas Bono, for example, I may initially think they were male, but IMO despite decades of hormones, Chas still has a very female fat deposition and I don't think it would be long before I clocked someone similar as female.

I don’t think I have, even if they are tall there is always something about bone structure, facial structure ( especially jaw), skin, the way they walk etc that I can tell it’s a woman

I once met a couple, gay men and did not realise one was a transman. I still know them and honestly, he just gets more masculine looking with age. Greying beard, balding, 6 ft, becoming portly. I do not think he would be welcome in a female toilet.

I have definitely done this, many times. The real question is, how would you know that you did if you didn't realise you were wrong?

I look absolutely horrendous in make up as I don't know how to apply it and always used to think I looked like a man in make up... I guess I just won't bother trying now just in case. Luckily I am a dumpy frumpy middle aged woman with massive tits and arse so hopefully will be fine.