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Friday, June 10, 2011

Corrections

Hannah said I couldn't turn this brief He's a Lady encounter that happened today into a story because there was no moment where they realize he was a lady - BUT I am here, blogging it, to prove her wrong.

Now I get to riff on the way I feel about people calling me Sir:

It's usually not worth it to correct people when they call me Sir or refer to me as He or Him. If you've read my posts so far, you would've noticed this general inaction. I just tend to let people make their assumptions and see if I can't live around them.

Maybe that sounds pathetic - but I don't really mind those pronouns. It doesn't offend my sense of self or degrade my feminine sensibilities. Since I walk this strange genderline, I think it makes perfect sense that I get called He now and then. I welcome it. Or I would welcome it if I thought that it had no negativity attached to it.

50% of the time, people call me Sir and then I open my mouth and out comes this feminine voice and they look back up and say Oh I Mean Ma'am. The other 50% they either don't hear the girl in me or they are far too embarrased to correct themselves.

Today Hannah I were sitting on the steps of the Grad Center for lunch and two tourists stopped by our "lunch table" and interrupt "our meal" (protein smoothies) to say: "Sir! Where is this?" One of them pointed down at his map that had the Empire State Building circled with the acronym ESB next to it. After he finished attempting to pronounce "ESB" as if it was a word I pointed to the building in front of him. We all laughed together, them because it was right under their noses (hilarious! it's a tall building!) and us because there was no point in correcting his Sir and yeah, it was funny they were so close and didn't even know it.

2 comments:

  1. Clearly not the world's most observant tourist. I wonder what other subtleties he has missed wandering around the big apple.

    I appreciate your thoughts re being called Sir. I don't mind it at all. What gets frustrating to me is when people realize i'm not a dude and then get all flustered because they can't imagine that I would find being called Sir anything other than insulting.

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  2. Yeah, it can be a super awkward moment - especially because they think that it's the first time it's ever happened to you.

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