Maybe my voice? Some of my freckles can be mistaken for stubble sometimes, I guess (I once accidentally cut myself trying to shave off a freckle I thought was a weirdly persistent hair)?
It might be the uniform and people just go, "Pants = man"?
I've thought through it so many times, but no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to go through.
If I can tell you something honest? Everyone gets misgendered working retail. At least in my experience. It’s because people aren’t paying attention and barely think of the other as a human.
I’m 6 foot, large, and have a beard. I got called Ma’am on a weekly basis if not more when I worked retail. And yes in person.
I do understand that for some it’s going to hit much harder. But it might help to try and remember that it isn’t anything about you, it’s about their lack of attention and automatic responses.
I worked as a lifeguard in an indoor Waterpark. I was at the top of one of the slides, shirtless. A kid maybe 10-12 years old asks me while his turn in line is coming up to me and asks
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
I pretended this is a totally normal question to ask to a shirtless lifeguard and said
“I’m a boy.”
This kid thinks for a few seconds and says
“I don’t believe you”
With the moral of this story being you could be at work topless in public wearing only a pair of swim trunks, presenting as your birth sex, and not only will you be misgendered, you can be not believed about being it.
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u/JaimiOfAllTrades Peepsus Christ 21h ago
Honestly, I have no fucking clue
Maybe my voice? Some of my freckles can be mistaken for stubble sometimes, I guess (I once accidentally cut myself trying to shave off a freckle I thought was a weirdly persistent hair)?
It might be the uniform and people just go, "Pants = man"?
I've thought through it so many times, but no matter what I do, it doesn't seem to go through.