What acts of sexism have you encountered today?

[BertieBotts]

I thought it would be interesting to have a thread where we can come on and post any day-to-day sexism/effects of sexism, thinking mainly low-level things, but big things are alright to post too of course. I thought it might be eye-opening (if depressing) to collate how much crap there is to deal with on a daily basis.

I'll start - while listening to music on spotify, having to listen to an unskippable ad for a rap artist playing a clip of his song which includes the lyrics We bring the women and the cars and the cards out

The other one I can think of (which fair enough was during a seminar about feminism) was a guy in my class who kept saying things like "Well yes women are paid less than men/women are vastly underrepresented in parliament/rape conviction rates are ridiculously low. [etc] But that's just the way it is. It's the same in all societies that I know of. I don't know what you can do about it."

Anyone else?

a heavily male-dominated CBeebies schedule

Being described as agressive when I am pretty sure if a man had behaved as I had done the worst that would have been said was 'forceful'

Attending a lecture about the law and mental health and knowing the (foreign) name of the presenter beforehand but assuming it belonged to a male.

'alright love' from a delivery driver dropping off a parcel.

Absolutely none. Plus, was please to host a playdate with a newly divorced mum and find that she's busy setting up her own business, and to call a couple of the big accountancy firms for a quote on some due diligence work, and get half the calls answered by women partners. A good day :-)

I have come home early from a drink with colleagues because someone smacked my bum when I was at the bar. I turned round and there was no obvious culprit (it was a packed bar) and the pathetic, humiliated part of me didn't want to make a scene.

I told one of my colleagues, who giggled , so I made my excuses and left. I was about to go anyway but it ruined the night for me. And, of course, I was very jumpy on the way home.

Really fucking stung as well.

But are you sure it was a male hand that smacked your bum LaLa?

No, no idea who it was.

If an anonymous woman had smacked me it would have been fine and not painful and humiliating

Just the usual:
'Whats for dinner?'

LaLa you obviously felt hurt & humiliated by the smack on the bum which was an assault, whoever did it to you. It was wrong and I can imagine it was a horrible experience.

I was challenging your automatic assumption that it must have been a male who hit you.

Whose behaviour was sexist?

Zuzu - what's the likelihood here? I have never had a woman pat my bum randomly, it's completely bizarre that you are suggestion that Lala might be being sexist by assuming it was a man!

The looks I usually get when I hand over DD to DH and say goodbye as I get the bus to work. He often walks me to the stop. Though I normally get a few smiles as well.

I didn't automatically assume it was a male, I never said I did.

Whoever hit me felt they had the right to touch, hurt and humiliate me and it made me feel objectified and 'under threat' in a way it possibly wouldn't have affected a male. Can't you see that?

Long time lurker here :).

I have been a member of a discussion forum relating to my ethnicity for 10 years now. I've made a few good friends there, and it helped me with my sense of identity, so I feel a sense of affinity with it. Left it for a while, but returned at the back end of last year. It has become increasingly dominated by a few noisy posters, who express casually sexist views on a regular basis.

There have been a couple of threads discussing gender issues, including rape, to which I was contributing. It felt like banging my head against a brick wall. I was told that I (and feminists) were conditioned by society. There was a lot of emphasis on the responsibility of women to avoid/prevent rape rather than the responsibility of men not to rape. The thread specifically about rape degenerated into jokes and "recommendations" - and I snapped and said that societal attitudes regarding rape, were one of the reasons why rape still happened - because by and large men got away with it. Used the terms "rape deniers" and "rape apologists". I was then called "immature, militant and part of the problem".

It has actually made me feel - decided it was pointless spending time there, as I felt I was achieving nothing. Have since looked at how to make a tangible difference through volunteering. But feel bad about giving up with that particular audience.

It shouldn't bug me, but it does .

My DS 10 asked me what a lesbian is. I explained. He said it sounded like a good idea two mums and no dad.

He then said he had spotted a flaw in the plan as two women would try to clean the same spot, argue about it and nothing would get done.

He thinks he is funny

This morning when trying to find a breakfast radio show to settle on for my alarm clock, I noticed that every single breakfast show has a male presenter, with the female (if she exists) as a sort of accessory. Even if the the show is titled as though they are equal e.g. "Holly and James Breakfast Show" the male presenter STILL has a more major role, being the one to decide on competitions, stay in the studio while she goes out doing some "feature", etc.

I have never noticed this before (though it has been a while since I've listened to breakfast radio)

Logging on to see the nearly naked women draped all over the products on the Made.com website. So unbelievably offensive for a supposedly innovative company . Will complain when I have a minute.

www.made.com

Just saw on a friends fb page some debating about the royal wedding and the things some of those blokes were saying about Kate and Diana made me go cold.

I am a civil engineer and I have lost count over the many times I have turned up to meetings and have either been mistaken for someone who is taking the minutes or that work have sent the wrong person (my name could actually be a male name), or being mistaken for being a junior engineer when I am often the lead design engineer. The worst instance was about 9 years ago being asked in an interview if I wanted children and when would that be etc which was none of their business! Strangely doesn't bother me that much or maybe I have just got used to it, at the end of the day I know I am good at my job, more competent than many of my male colleagues and let my work do the talking.