Something I noticed whenever I don't put my gender down...

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Same here. Harassment, too. I don't know any women who haven't experienced harassment in the workplace, of one sort or another. It's far more prevalent than the perception, I think. But I also think I could live with it as long as I was getting the same pay and so on as the men. And how many of you have gone into a meeting with a group of managers and been asked to get the coffee? I suppose it's trivial and I shouldn't let it bother me, but it makes me angry enough to spit. "No, Mr. So-and-So ... you'll have to get your own coffee. And while you're at it, you can stuff it up your _____."

sorry to intrude on this forum, being male...

You're probably right. Though when I don't know a user's gender, I don't automatically think of them as male - but I always mentally assign them a gender.



I think it depends - a man will probably respect a boy your age more than a girl, but a woman would probably respect a girl more. At least that's my impression. It's due to people thinking they are/were the mature ones and the 'others' are the immature ones.

*sneaks away*

I guess I should say this story has its pro's and cons. I was working for a tax office and we were trying to do this deal with Walmart. I had to make a presentation to a store management team about what I was wanting to do in front of an all male (immature ones at that) meeting. They treated me like I was an idiot, or a child coming at them, or the hated teacher. Everything I said was a joke to them, and they kept goofing off. I just ignored it and did my thing. The manager ended up letting me do whatever I wanted to do really in the end, and I think it was because I was a woman or pretty or something. So while some men may treat me like I'm less of a person than they are for being a woman, that also usually gets me what I want without having to prove myself I guess. It only becomes an issue when some guy hires me hoping to have a sexual relationship with me and then fires me later after I turn down his sexual offers for a while (since that little piece of hope gets them thinking no means yes and just keep trying).

I'm a guy, and I assume anyone I run into on the internet is a guy until proven otherwise. It's just safer that way, as a lot of the "girls" are really guys, and girls seem to take being mistaken for being a guy much better than guys tend to take being mistaken as a girl.

I can't really say I've never taken a girl's message any less seriously than a guy's, but then I'm not very normal in any way. I do try to avoid arguments with anyone I know to be a woman, though - I would feel pretty weird getting in a disagreement with a woman, and feel it would be easier to just ignore anything I disagree with. I don't usually feel so bad trying to cut a guy's arguments to pieces if I'm in a disagreeable mood.

I actually look forward to and enjoy the messages of many of the ladies posting here, but I can't bring myself to post anything positive in response to your messages without feeling like the sort of creep who flatters and hits on girls to try to get instant girlfriends, but when I agree with something a lady posted, I'll at least say to myself, "right on! It's about time someone with some sense got involved in this discussion!" I glanced through the photos of form members posted in the members-only forum, and if the pictures are anything to go by there are many very pretty women posting here, but I've always been terrible at compliments, and I can't really say anything nice about the photos without feeling extremely awkward, for pretty much the same reason: it makes me feel like a creep. It's easier to keep my mouth shut.

I think the ladies who are considering posting as guys should definitely try it. It can be an enlightening, interesting, amusing, and strangely satisfying experience.

I've posted as the opposite gender before and I learned a lot about myself and, I think, walked away from the experience happier with my own gender and better equipped to deal with the opposite sex than I had been before (if you think I'm bad now, you should have seen me before!) My experience was that not as many guys hit on me as I would have expected, but the few who did were usually extremely offensive about it. I found it strange that by avoiding sexual or other taboo subjects, remaining calm and polite, and at all times remaining neutral regarding the guys, I was in many ways more popular than the apparently "real" girls among the both respectful male posters and the creeps - I can only take that to mean that I was terrible at pretending to be a girl, but I nevertheless seemed to thoroughly convince the guys I was communicating with. In any event, when rank-and-file internet guys thought I was female, they seemed to me to be usually more polite and friendly but tended to avoid specific details in conversation, while a handful of cretins tried to treat me like an instant-girlfriend while considering my consistent rejections for net-sex to be somehow attractive and cause for more enthusiastic invitations (or sometimes demands) for nude pictures or chat-sex.

I like to play poker online and have found that if I don't specify a gender or use a gender-neutral name, people will assume I'm male and will tend to leave me alone to concentrate on my game. If I sign on as a female, then people will try to chat with me during poker hands - very annoying (and sometimes expensive) when I'm trying to concentrate!