Man, I feel like a woman.

[TheOnlyOneInTheMNVillage]

Are there any really daft times that you feel silly about something purely because you’re a woman? I don’t mean the serious things, like in the workplace not being paid enough/promoted, but times when being female is totally irrelevant but you feel…lesser?

Mine is when I wash my car. I feel like men waiting in the queue or generally around see me and think ‘Well she’s doing a terrible job’, ‘She’s missed that bit‘ etc. I feel embarrassed washing my car purely because I’m a woman , even though I do an okay job and I doubt anyone else is watching me.

Is it just me or do you have scenarios where you feel like you’re being judged purely because of your vagina?!

As I say, lighthearted stuff, we all know about the serious shit that goes on out there.

I swim regularly and was a competitive swimmer as a child/young adult. Whenever I book into a lane swim session I book in the medium lane. I'm normally with 4-5 other women. In the fast lane are always 3-4 men, all slower and weaker swimmers than me and at least a couple of other women in the medium lane. Is it our confidence or mens over inflated opinion of themselves (generalising of course!)? I've swam in many pools over many years and it's always always the same. You know they're looking at you in amazement thinking oh my god how can this woman possibly be faster than me, a man.

I just want to add - the thumbs up digger thing - it was a nice thing, i would smile and thumb up back 😊

This reminds me of the time I was in pets at home and I picked up a massive heavy bag of cat litter to put on the conveyor belt and the guy on the till said "wow, you lifted that easily" I gestured to hefty DS in his buggy and said "well I have to haul him around all day so I guess I've built up some muscle".

He just look astonished as if it'd never occur to him that anyone either not male or a bodybuilder would have the strength to lift anything heavier than a coffee cup.

Helpel - with you on the swimming thing.

I've seen men attempt to obstruct any women having the temerity to go faster than them 🙄

Yep there was a whole thread on here about men doing that after a newspaper article on it. It’s pathetic.

Cooking meat. I leave to DH, even though I’m better at it.
He seems to have some male meat-cooking ego thing…

When we moved into our first house we didn't have a lot of money and I made quite a bit of furniture out of pallets. Whenever anyone complimented my furniture (I was quite good at it! During the pandemic when I had a lot of time) I used to think to myself "no bad... for a girl" 😂

How about the carving?

I'm probably better at it than DH but always feel it's the maaaan's job 😂

How about the carving?
I'm probably better at it than DH but always feel it's the maaaan's job

It's DHs job merely because he's no good at gravy.

Putting air into my tyres at the petrol station. I swear nearly everytime a grubby white van driver pulls up behind waiting his turn and I feel he's timing me.

Yes! Same here.

He's less bad at carving 😂

I would have given you a thumbs up!

I was born in the early seventies and still hear loads of news, even now well into the 21st century, about a woman doing a particular thing for the first time.

In sport, business, academia, politics, Hollywood, etc, the number of arenas in which women have been historically marginalised, ignored and unable to fully participate is breathtaking.

Watching the Lionesses win the Euros in 2022 was highly emotive for me, and made me see even more clearly why representation matters so much.

That's always such a massive trope on SM! Whiny men complaining they have it so bad, women want equal pay but don't go for the shifty jobs, look at the unfortunate garbage workers doing all the heavy lifting...! I tend to just ask them if they've ever had to change the bedsheets under a bedridden man mountain the way nurses do.

Haha, yes. I try to ignore it as best I can, though!

I had a new kitchen delivered the other day, the driver was alone and the stuff was too big/bulky for him to carry in by himself (no idea why he didn’t have a driver’s mate!), he looked me up and down and started fretting about there not being another man there to help him, even though nothing had been mentioned that another person would be required to unload the boxes! He was mithering about how I couldn’t possibly help him until I picked up the oven and carried it into the house in silence. He shut up quite quickly and got on with the rest of the job 😂

I used to work in an aerospace factory and one of the drivers of the hgvs was a very capable woman. she used to get the usual crap comments until one day she did a particular manoeuvre in the yard to get the HGV out which was laden with wing parts and which no other wagon driver had ever done apparantly.
Shut them all right up. It was very funny.

Not now.. but many years ago l was a motorcycle instructor..
So when my four students used to turn up at the classroom..( 99% young men) .. they sat laughing and joking and swearing asking each other when the instructor would turn up.. and suprised to see me thinking a woman was " learning to ride a motorbike ".
So l let it go on for five minutes before saying " Right lads are you ready.. let's go outside and onto our bikes " they usually used to look very bemused.. even more so when they got onto their small engin learner bikes and l straddled my Z1000 ( a very large Kawasaki witn huge engin).

I'm so with you there and I have a massive car normally considered a 'mans' car which I chose and obviously pay for myself. Several men have said to me 'don't you want a nice little run around' so I'm even more smug

The time the man hiring out the speed boat to me my DH and DS had a hissy fit when I held my hand out for the keys. He made me feel so bad that I made a pigs ear of it and had to let my DH. Take the boat out. As soon as we were out of sight we swapped over and I piloted the boat for the rest of our trip round a couple of small islands in the bay. When we got back I did a few turns at top speed with my son laughing, in front of the boatman. God he looked worried. I use it as an example of the patriarchy and how it affects women’s confidence.
“Do you remember how that boatman reacted in Croatia? That’s what wears women down”
I am used to driving vans on motorways, and was the driver on our holiday, but that boatman really dented my confidence on the sea, until I was out of sight

@StoorieHoose Actually, if my DH saw you do this the look would be of horror, as he would never drag a grotty petrol hose over and around his car. Neither would I to be honest. So perhaps they're not all looking on in amazement

I wouldn’t say I feel ‘lesser’ 😂 but I rarely fill up my car tyres at the garage air machine because a man always comes over and starts bossing me about, even if he doesn’t actually know how to use the machine himself. So annoying. And I stopped doing weights at the gym because men seemed to think I wanted their advice 🤮

Doesn’t really affect me. Except. Buying a drink in a blokey pub when on my own. I always feel a bit out of place jostling in between those blokes who all seem to hog all the bar space and stay there (why do they do that when there are seats?)

Going to B&Q type places and asking for help with something. They always assume you know nothing and often defer to my husband, who knows zero about DIY whereas I’m fairly competent.

I need some wood cutting size for some shelves and I’m dreading going in and being patronised, so stupid!