To ask if this woman was reasonable to make a complaint of sexism against a train station worker?

[CounsellorTroi]

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/train-station-worker-said-door-20427510?fbclid=IwAR1f04ip9QSaRaqT_uAw5d_areNmeBte49_fcmaw3hi58UuHm8T2Vw24ufA

She was having trouble opening a train door and he helped her, saying "it needed a man's touch"

I think the general population are nearing saturation for the level of offence and triggering that is becoming more and more common.
Pick your battles.

@wingsnthat

all the trains i've travelled on over past few years have been a push button....simple enough

hope these weird awkward doors are sanitised after every tom,dick and harry have touched them!! oops, is that a sexist phrase? cant say that i suppose

This is just looking for offence for the sake of it. People being like this takes away from society. We will end up in a world where people are afraid to speak.
Bloody ridiculous, the complaint annoys me far more than the comment itself.

[quote GirlCrush]@wingsnthat

all the trains i've travelled on over past few years have been a push button....simple enough

hope these weird awkward doors are sanitised after every tom,dick and harry have touched them!! oops, is that a sexist phrase? cant say that i suppose[/quote]
That’s my point. If the doors didn’t open first time then it’s the staff’s job to deal with it. She isn’t “lucky” he carried out a basic aspect of his job description. Your standards are really low, aren’t they?

No, buttons are not sanitised after 1 person has touched them. They’re sanitised when the train goes out of service at the end of the line. Significant amounts of passengers could touch them during that time. If the staff member was worried about touching it, presumably he would have sanitised it himself. She’s not “lucky” he touched it after she did.

I would have light-heartedly called him out on the comment at the time, but not made an official complaint.

Yes it is a sexist comment and it's "just everyday sexism " but if we don't call it out then nothing will change, perhaps if we make all types of sexism including the everyday type as unacceptably as say racism we might be able to change the way society and men treat women

Blimey, it must be a quiet news day in Wales if the best they can come up with is a story about a woman having trouble doing something as simple as opening a door, feeling embarrassed because a man has to do it for her, and then getting offended when he makes a mild joke of it.

@wingsnthat nah love, not at all

I'd have interpreted as a joke, unless his tone really suggested otherwise.

As a joke, it's not sexist, because the joke depends on recognising that the whole idea of the door needing a man's touch is quite silly.

@OppsUpsSide

I think the general population are nearing saturation for the level of offence and triggering that is becoming more and more common. Pick your battles.

Yeah, I think this is true. People are going to start to find that others begin from a position of skepticism when these things come up.

She didn't even hear him. Her boyfriend told her ...

@Atalantea

Ffs!

And YABU for sharing a shitty clickbaity website which is cluttered with ads so you can't read anything, you have to click back 4 times to exit!!

Yep, totally agree.

I would have told him I'd loosened it for him and gone on about my day.

People bandy the expression 'a woman's touch' about, all the time, without thinking twice about it. 'His flat needed a woman's touch', or whatever.
In reverse, it certainly is annoying, but I wouldn't have complained.

I wouldn’t take offence at this light-hearted comment by someone who’s being helpful.

Hopefully next time she can open her own door.

Seriously, could not get worked up about this.
Light hearted remark.
Might roll my eyes and laugh at most, but to make a complaint?!
Er, no, FFS

But DID he open the doors 🤔

It sounds like an OTT thing to complain about but he should know he can't say things like that at work in 2021. It's everyday casual sexism that doesn't have much power to hurt someone usually but it certainly should be brought up as an issue. I wouldn't have personally gone as far as to make a complaint, I'd have perhaps told him it wasn't appropriate.
But to say she's being overly sensitive isn't fair. It is a stupid thing to say now, we all know things we were allowed to once say we can say now and the only way for some people to see that is to be called out. I would say it's good it's a discussion and the man in question will hopefully know not to say things like this again in his place of work. Most of us wouldn't have thought anything of it, but we don't need this still going on no matter how small a thing it is.

* People bandy the expression 'a woman's touch' about, all the time, without thinking twice about it. 'His flat needed a woman's touch', or whatever.*

^I agree. This woman was just looking to be offended. How sad.

🙄

I'm sure he's learned a lesson alright - definitely not "how to talk to women" (as the monolith that we are ), but why he shouldn't talk to women incase he misspeaks again.

Blimey I'll be expecting a call from HR any day soon then. My male colleague had trouble pulling apart a plastic apron on Thursday so he could go to see a person he supports. I did it for him and told him "it just needed a woman's touch" ...how awful of me.

@whenthebellsring

🙄

I'm sure he's learned a lesson alright - definitely not "how to talk to women" (as the monolith that we are ), but why he shouldn't talk to women incase he misspeaks again.

That would be rather dense of him though, and just because someone is sexist it does not follow that they're also stupid.

Learning to say things like 'needs and expert touch' or 'needs an experienced had' or even just 'stronger hand, glad I could help' would all be fine.

Everyday sexism is insidious

I wouldn't have complained. But I would have said something shitty back I expect.

I'm pretty sick of the 'women can't read maps, men can't cook' bullshit now. Was boring and bullshit thirty years ago.

In some ways I think she did right, just I'm too shy to make a public stink like that. Plus you get a lot of backlash from women, who think we should put up with it.

@eatsleepread

People bandy the expression 'a woman's touch' about, all the time, without thinking twice about it. 'His flat needed a woman's touch', or whatever. In reverse, it certainly is annoying, but I wouldn't have complained.

Well this is sexist bullshit too, so again I wouldn't complain but I might tell someone to stop being a sexist tosspot if they said it to me.