Have you ever had someone make assumptions about you just because you are _______________?

Often.

I’m a gamer, but I dislike D&D.
I’m a computer geek who doesn’t code. (I’m more of a hardware guy.)
I’m a Liberal who supports gun rights and small business owners.
I’m a car guy who dislikes both V-8 American muscle and Riced-out street racers.
I’m a guy who doesn’t like sports.
I’m a former Navy guy who is 100% heterosexual.

What’s really funny is when a car dealer or mechanic tries fast-talking my mother; she used to be a VW mechanic back when “Volkswagen” meant “Beetle”.

All the freaking time, because I am over weight people tend to think your lazy,I tell them I work 14hours a day they tend to shut up.
There can’t understand why my job is so fatiguing after all I do is sit behind a steering wheel all day what is exhausting about that? I ask if they get tired after a real long road trip, they said yes,then I said think about it..

Of course. That’s what people do. I have lots of tattoos. People think I’m some low-life with no job. I’m in a 14 year relationship with a woman and people assume I’m a lesbian, but I am not. I’m bisexual. I have 5 cats and I’m a crazy cat lady…oh, wait. That’s true. = ^{. .} =

@tinyfaery You’re my hero!

I get this shit all the time. People look over my shoulder and ask, “Is your manager here?” or, “Is the wine person here?” as if I’m going to summon some dude who can help them with their issue. Not one time has someone said, “are you the manager?” I’ve had people walk past me, find my male co-worker, and ask him a question, only for him to point them back to me.

When I was younger men assumed I was sex crazed because I had large breasts.

@Dutchess_III I tip my hat to you for knowing power tools and reading the manual. Most people I know see that as some kind of supernatural power. It’s weird.

RE: the original question – I think I have mentioned this here before – I am a middle-aged white guy and people assume I will enjoy golf and racist jokes.

I took carpentry in school and people are often surprised when I talk about countersinking screw heads, beveling, chamfering, miter boxes and stuff like that. They are surprised that a woman knows these things.

My best friend (one of my best friends) told me when she met me, she assumed I was a lesbian because at the time I had short hair and she knew I took carpentry in high school I told her “I’m the most un-gay person you’ll ever meet.” LOL

I’m not a petite woman but I can touch my palms flat on the floor without bending my knees, and people assume that someone large cannot do that.

I have blonde hair but one of my parents is from Mexico. I tell them I’m the blanca Mexicana. I also say “don’t judge me by my hair color because it’s fake.”

@jaytkay Oh, give me power tools over a sewing machine any day! At the moment I’m kind of mad at my husband because he’d picked up a handheld belt sander and the coolest little circular saw at an auction a couple of years ago, and I just now found out…when I’m almost at the end of my shelving project of 3 months.

Some people think the same thing when I manipulate the different widows programs (Excel, especially) to make it do things they had no idea it could do. They think I’m a witch of some sort, especially older people (sadly, that means many people my own age.)

@Dutchess_III: I just sanded my parents’ table this past Spring when they were away on vacation. I had a belt sander but it didn’t work so I bought a brand new one at Home Depot, about 50 bucks. I bought the big mother and it sanded that table in about five minutes flat!

It is dang cool. The only belt sander I’ve ever used before this was a mondo one. We sanded the old wood floors at the shop.

Gosh, one year my dad and his wife asked if there was anything special I wanted for Christmas. I said, “A socket set.” They just laughed. They thought I was joking. :(

I have a router and a router table but I’ve never used it. One day….

I also have a brand new sewing machine still in box, but I’ve never used that, either. I’d love to learn how to sew well. I can sew, but not well.

I can sew, and sew well….but I hate it. And my machine hates me. And I hate my machine. So I don’t sew.

In primary school, my teacher assumed that I plundered the chocolate calendar, because I was the only non white pupil in my class.

Along the lines of your story…. I was a supervisor in the Hardware Department/Lawn and Garden/ Sporting Goods department at Sears. They had some great training if you took advantage of it. I had had quite a bit of training on tractors and had just watched a video on a top of the line tractor. (I can’t remember the brand but it wasn’t Craftsman and it was the most expensive thing we sold and we didn’t have one on the floor.)
All my salesmen were unavailable and a customer came in looking for a tractor. I did my pitch, told him everything I had learned about this new tractor and sold him the tractor (I think it was around 10k) along with a mulching blade.
As I was ringing it up one of the guys appeared and since I didn’t work on commission and he did I asked if he would like to ring it up. I had the books open so I had all the model numbers for the accessories I sold him and for the tractor, all he had to do was take dictation.
The next day when the numbers from the previous day came out his numbers were quite impressive! I was talking to one of the other salesmen and told him I had given the sale to the first salesman because he walked up as I was ringing it up.
He said “Ya, he told me the guy came in and knew exactly what he wanted and bought it.”
I was so angry because I worked really hard to close that sale and he acted like I didn’t have to educate the customer at all! At 3% commission I handed him a lot of money I didn’t have to!

That’s my story, but my other answer to your question is that people make assumptions about me because I’m a Christian.
I have stopped telling people unless they ask why I do what I do. I am far from a right wing hell fire and brimstone spewer. My politics support justice and mercy because my faith informs my politics. I can’t see my faith justifying lower taxes or cuts in services to the poor.

@Judi Why do you think some men just have to seem like they know things a woman doesn’t? (Now me thinks we paid too much for our tractor….)

Your last comments really solidified a question that’s been rolling around in my mind, about Christianity, and the impressions so many Christians are giving people today, that is a total detriment to the religion.

because they have been raised by the patriarchy to see women as inferior, when it is in fact men that are inferior.

@Dutchess, this was probably 20+ years ago so you probably didn’t pay to much. (That’s why I can’t remember the brand!)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Am I the only one here who did not know @ragingloli is not blonde and white?
I feel like someone who was walking along and suddenly overheard a conversation they knew was highly personal.
Will there be a gender disclosure any time in the near future?
On the subject of that disclosure, I am sorry you were targeted like that.

I am a hodge podge of beliefs, knowledge, experiences, interests. I don’t fit neatly into any package. I’ve had all sorts of mistaken assumptions made about me.

We all know @ragingloli is a genderless alien, although he/she has not revealed her skin tone at least where I have seen.

I think they probably have since the odds are against me. I have never been married, never had a real girlfriend, am over the age of 30. 90% of men like this are gay, I am not but I think some have thought I was.