At Disney, someone must have been playing with the "political correctness switch." First day, I heard the dreaded "S" word only a couple of times despite many contacts with "cast members" - translation: staff. On the second day, I was treated to "being addressed as a female" every time I had contact with officialdom...from the security folks at the entrance, to the cast members at the different rides.
Come the third day, I heard a combination of "Sir" and "Ma'am," with a few "no gender specific" greetings thrown in for good measure. For instance, the first bus driver of the day (female) addressed me as female. When I was looking for a restroom, I came across the ladies' room. Two unrelated women invited me to stand in line with them. I escaped that issue by saying I'd lost my friend - who was wearing a white jacket - and was just looking for her. They advised me that she hadn't gone in that restroom. Numerous staffers addressed both my wife and I together as "ladies."
I was selected by one of their male researchers to answer a few questions about my experience with a particular ride. It was legit...they had ID and a Disney tablet. Wish I could have seen how he identified me - as male or female, but he used 'Ma'am" to address me. And by the time I saw how the tablet was being used, it was too late to determine. Very interesting.
On the way out of the park ("alone," as my wife was several people behind me), two security officers addressed me as "Sir" - though I was wearing ballet flats, pantyhose, gray capris, pocket polo shirt, Mom's necklace, and clearly carrying a purse. But the bus driver (a female) addressed me as "Ma'am." The only "difference?" By that time my wife had caught back up to me...as in two females traveling together.
This has been an interesting experiment, as it confirms there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why some people interpret a given person as "male" and others see that same person as "female." Except the for my "two females traveling together" theory. And I plan to pay more attention to this in the future...
I'll leave you with a dusk view of the easily identifiable Cinderella's Castle at Disney World. Enjoy!
You do have the unique ability to straddle the gender line. There are some cues that you give off that are clearly female but there are other cues that may trigger the casual observer to peg you as a guy.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that pegging a person's gender is one of the first things that people do automatically all the time.
Pat
Indeed...it's working for me. Not sure why, or how, but it's a good thing! And I can agree that the gender is often the first thing people evaluate.
DeleteMandy