To think women can carry pizzas?

[TaterTots]

Absolutely not a serious issue - just a slightly odd comment...

We got free pizza at work yesterday for some team-building jobbie. An email came from reception telling us it was here. Heavily pregnant colleague sees the email first and says 'Someone needs to go and fetch it - I don't mind'.

Not surprisingly there were a few cries of 'Oh, no', which is fair enough. However, what annoyed me was another colleague making a dismissive noise and saying 'Get one of the guys to do it', as if it was obvious.

AIBU to think that, if she was that bothered, she could have used her own fully working legs to walk to the lift and her equally functional arms to carry four pizza boxes? To me it looks like she's trying to appear super-helpful to the pregnant woman, but without actually lifting a finger - and at the same time perpetuating the idea that women are far too delicate to do such jobs. Apparently we need a 'big strong man'. It was pizza for Christ's sake, not paving slabs.

Surely she should have volunteered herself rather than un-volunteering half the workforce?

Uggghhh I hate this.

I've hated this from primary school when the teacher comes in and says 'We need some strong boys to help move the TV/a table/other thing. Oh my god girls can do it too!
Its not like pizza is bloody heavy! Unless the boxes were piled high and they needed someone tall to see over them or something??

Reasonable not to expect pregnant colleague not to fetch it, but no reason why a woman without restricted movement couldn't go.

And then this type of bullshit is used to justify why women are paid less.

I make a point of doing the heavy lifting and spider moving in my office.

I'm picturing her in a cartoon with the title 'leaning tower of pizza' now

I don't actually see why a heavily pregnant woman,assuming she does not have additional mobility issues, can't carry pizzas either. In a couple of months time she will be carrying a baby and probably humping a buggy up and down steps/in and out of a car while balancing a few bags of shopping, it strikes me that carrying a few pizza boxes might be good practice, as someone said, they are not paving slabs.

Depends on the toppings :D

This made me think of a friend's (reasonable) complaint that he was told he had to go get a hoover from another building despite being in the middle of something (while other people were free) because 'you're the only man in the office'. As he pointed out, even the most ardent misogynists tend to believe that women are strong enough to lift a hoover...!

I thought ardent misogynists believed lifting Hoovers was ALL we did!

A colleague once asked me for help with getting a box down from a high shelf. She didn't want me to help by getting the box down myself, she wanted me to help by asking a male colleague (who was shorter than me ffs) to get the box down for her.

It's absurd.

Depends how hungry she was.

She should've offered to go herself rather than suggest "one of the guys" do it. I don't mind pregnant women getting a bit OTT help with things.

If someone asked me to get them something from a shelf, I would probably suggest they ask a man instead, as I'm very short..... I am shorter than the majority of other people :P

It's a ridiculous comment about a couple of boxes of pizzas.

However, men are physically stronger than women in general. A 6ft female weight lifter will obviously be stronger than a 4ft10 male sport phobic, but at equal weight and size, men are generally stronger. Why do you want to pretend it's untrue? Care to go into a boxing ring against a male opponent the same weight than you to demonstrate?

I don't actually see why a heavily pregnant woman,assuming she does not have additional mobility issues, can't carry pizzas either

Well if you imagine that a heavily pregnant woman most probably can't see her own feet as it is, then give her 4 large pizza boxes to hold (which she will either have to carry on her bump, possibly obscuring her view even more, or try and hold out in front of bump), I imagine the poor woman would be far more likely to trip over the stairs or whatever. I don't think it's that hard to see why someone a bit less encumbered might be better for the job.

That said, a non-pregnant woman would be perfectly capable I'm sure.

this has happened a number of times, usually a group of women moving a table or box and a man has come over and said

"Do you need a man to help you with that"

To which i always reply

"Yes please, you trot off and find one and we will carry on moving this"

I dont get to say it much any more

PMSL @ DixieWishbone (I did once find DS trying to use his willy instead of his finger to follow the words in his reading book when he was about 4....)

Why do you want to pretend it's untrue?

Erm... I don't. But it was pizza boxes, nor lead weights.

I don't see why she couldn't have gone and got them herself. I can see why it could be said not to expect a pregnant woman to go, but then again pregnant women still have to do things.
(I stood and done a pile of ironing on my actual due date. And travelled on public transport during my early labour/ while I has having mild contractions).

Was it ham and pineapple? Some people are funny about hot fruit... not me, I'd eat anything

I wonder if the woman who suggested that the guys fetch it, was hacked off that it tends to be the women volunteering to do the fetching, carrying and food/beverage waitressing in your office? Perhaps it was less that she feels women can't carry pizza and more that she feels maybe it was time the men stepped up.
I know in my office it somehow usually ended up with women arranging coffee or sandwiches for meetings, or organising the coffee kitty, all the little things that smooth life along and make it more pleasant for everyone.