So a friend – who shall remain nameless – needed to pick up some special paper to print her thesis on. Being a total freak for paper and pens and all manner of office supplies, of course I knew that Staples happened to carry the right paper. It needed to be thesis paper. Seriously. It’s a special kind of paper that has to be cotton, etc, etc. Awesome, right?
I happened to be at a Staples one day after she had asked me
where she could possibly find this paper, and so I took a picture of the paper
on the shelf and texted it to her. She
knew what it looked like. She knew how
much it cost. She knew that Staples had it.
My friend then went to Staples to buy the paper. She couldn’t find it because she didn’t know
the super-secret place they hide it, so she asked an employee.
In response to the question to the employee, a random guy
responded, telling my friend (and the employee) that to get paper like that,
you had to go to a specialty stationary store.
Which was totally and completely wrong.
But he said it with complete authority – even though he hadn’t been
asked – and then he walked away, convinced that he had just delivered a proclamation
that all should (and would) listen to.
My friend ignored it, and, of course, found the paper she
was looking for because, hello!, Staples did carry it.
Here’s where it gets confusing.
Was he being sexist or just rude?
If it had been a woman who intruded on the conversation,
there wouldn’t be a question. But how
can you tell someone’s intent when the only thing you know for sure is that the
person speaking is male and that what he did was rude.
Would he have done this to a guy asking a question?
I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. But part of me really has reasonable doubt that
he would have felt the freedom to take charge of a situation with a male
questioner instead of a female.
Hopefully someday it won’t be a question, and we will be able to tell
the rude people from the sexist people, but for now…it’s anyone’s guess.
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