What Is the Biggest Form of Sexism You've Encountered?

@ grimes

Aw, that sounds awful. I was in a mixed sex flat in my first year of uni as well, and though we were 4 girls and 3 guys, after a couple of weeks I started wishing I had opted for single sex because the guys were incredibly messy and used other people's food / stuff all the time so the atmosphere in the flat wasn't great. I'm not a very tidy person and I've lived with women who are not particularly tidy, but nothing matches a teenage boy's sense of entitlement and complete disregard for other people's feelings. I'm always surprised that guys like this manage to find girlfriends who aren't driven mad by their messiness / the constant need to be their mother and clean up after them.

@ kafka.

Yeah, I always wondered how those guys got girls, and how they managed to make them stick around. I saw/heard somethings living there where I know if I was treated like that by anyone I’d be shot of them as soon as I could be but some of them really did kind of put up with it. I didn't understand it at all.

Your flat experience sounds a lot like my friend's. She had a similiar number of guys to girls and she told me the guys just used to help themselves to the girls stuff and completely trash the place. I never had the helping themselves to my stuff thing, not really at least, there was one occasion where a glass got stolen from my cupboard but it really did only happen just the once for me. And he used to steal off the other guys too.

Not opting for a single sex flat is one of the things I regret the most about my whole university experience :/ So much awful stuff would have been avoided if I'd have done that in the first place.

When I was a freshman once upon a time, I was on varsity basketball, along with a majority of the girls in my gym class. We had a sub one day and we were gonna play basketball. He let the boys play a full game, but he wouldn't let the girls play. Instead, he made us sit out the whole hour and told us we didn't know anything about the game... even though we were state champions that year. Needless to say, I got suspended that day for threatening to shove my foot up his...you know.

Well, it's not huge. But I was upset and it totally took me back. I had wanted to play hockey forever. I wanted to be the first girl in the NHL for the longest time. And one day (I was probably 10) I told some friends. They all laughed because hockey players are boys. I gave up. I wanted to play still, but didn't tell anyone. So I told my dad, thinking he'd understand. But even in Daddy's eyes I was just a girl. He told me I was acting like a boy if I played hockey. And when I was 13 I brought it up again, to this guy I liked. He called me a lesbian because hockey is a "guy thing." I lost it. I was mad at everyone, and I finally found a coach, my cousin's old coach. When I went to my cousins house I went to the rink, and he taught me so much about hockey in like 3 hours. According to him I looked like the next Sidney Crosby. My dad walked into the rink, he made me take off my skates and leave. I didn't skate for two years. And probably last winter, I begged my dad to let me play again. So here I am now. I'm the best in the whole league.

@ parisegirl09
That's awesome. I'm glad your dad finally came around. My dad wouldn't let me play football because I was girl. Fortunately, I had other passions that were more important to me. It seems like hockey is your passion and I'm glad you're currently able to pursue your dreams. I think the entire sports thing is pretty sexist (in the way women/women's sports are treated).

I wanted to get in the Police Academy as a dog trainer, everyone kept saying I should just go to Uni, that being a cop is not for women, women can't handle big dogs...
(I didn't get in the Academy because, apparently, I'm too short)

I've been raised in a Christian home where I've always been taught that yes, men and woman are equal, it's just that men are the ones who provide for the family and woman are to take care of the kids. Yah, ok. That's fine and dandy. But it's gone as far in my family (because of some reading materials my dad bought) as to say that woman are not to go outside of the home and work, and that if you purposely don't have kids in your adult years then you are sinning. Yah, I don't think so. They also believe that as girls we should stay at home until we get married.

According to my parents, this is how a female's life should go: You have periods from around age 10-45. Every fucking month, For approximately 35 years. Between that time, you go through child birth multiple times, which is possibly the most painful experience ever. You then have to raise those kids, schooling them, cooking for them, cleaning the house, getting up through out the night with them, etc. your life revolves around those kids from ages 25-40. By then, you have to watch them grow up and have kids of their own. Grand kids, yay! Ok, now you are older and have less energy to do things you want. Apparently, you use this time to 'minister' to younger woman and help out with their children. Know what your husbands get? Food, friends, football, and money.

Ok, let's stop. I'm 16, have 8 younger siblings, homeschooled, and extremely sheltered (as everyone thinks. But I have Internet access so... Yah.) I have had more kid experience than most 46 year olds now a days. I've been babysitting since I was 11 and haven't had much of a social life ever. I think it's ok, dad, if I want to have guy friends and get a job. And no, it doesn't make It easier when you scare them all away. Yes, I am a girl, but no, I'm not a slut and I don't sleep around. And I don't have friends who are going to rape me or anything. And I think it's perfectly ok if I don't want to have kids. I've been helping raise yours for 14 years. Does that count for anything? Gosh. I'm not usually so feminist but these religious things they teach me are really pissing me off.

@ Nerdybird123
I think it's pretty sad that some people believe for a woman to serve purpose or have any meaning in her life, she needs to pop kids outta her hoohah. You can be a woman without every having a children. And I think it's a lot smarter to wait until you're older, if possible, because you'd be more mature and financially stable. Not to mention, the older individuals are when they marry (like 30s/40s), the more likely they are to not divorce.

I'm sorry your family has some backwards views, but I'm really glad you've had the chance to explore others and find out what you believe.

@ miserable dru.
Yah, I've already decided that ima move out when Im old enough and make a life for myself.

I recently started a "boob blog" where I post pics of my clothed boobs (like in shirts and stuff) from neck to stomach. I had to intents of topless pics, really, I just wanted to show how awesome my boobs like in a top (which is when they look best) and this guy wasn't a total chauvanistic pig about it, but he did say it's "just teasing" if I don't take my top off at some point and I was just like "dude, there are other places for that, fuck off, I'll do what I want".

Like, how is it a tease? Are you somehow entitled to see my naked boobs because you saw my unnaked boobs?

I played Little League baseball for 10 years and it was really hit-and-miss with good coaches. I had seven good coaches who treated me as a baseball player, not a girl, but the other three coaches constantly sat me on the bench.

They never gave me a reason why, but I was constantly told "you're one of the best players on this team" so it didn't make much sense by their logic to sit me when all the boys got to play full games. My last season my coach was the worst. I got hurt in practice and had to miss the first three weeks of the season, but when I came back my coach still sat me because he didn't want me to re-injure myself. I wasn't going to suit up if I couldn't physically play... but then a week after I came back I broke my toe playing soccer and didn't tell my coach. I actually got to play (I stuffed an extra sock in my cleat to keep my toe from moving) and saved my team's ass in a really rough game.

I also got cut from a boy's select team when I was 12 even though there weren't enough kids trying out to make a full team.

More recently, I have a physics lab where my lab group is two guys, me and another girl. The guys insist on doing EVERYTHING, which is fine a lot of the time because I don't usually understand what the hell is going on. However, on the rare occasion that the other girl and I want to do an experiment, the guys whip out their phones and completely ignore us. A couple of weeks ago she and I did three experiments while they were playing games, they looked up and thought we were still on the first experiment -.- There is also only one female TA and our class leader is an ass to her compared the male TAs and when she came to talk to my group, the boys started messing with their phones again. Like, have some respect!

All of this is just sickening. Everything I've ever experienced is just sexism.
My mother doesn't care a damn about gender roles and she's all about equality and ethics, but all the guys she's ever been with were horrible misogynistic bad boys who were all violent apart from my father, who is an asshole but is physically weak. I've spent my childhood watching various men belittle and beat my mother.
As a young child I hated everything girly because I constantly saw women as weak people who couldn't do anything and just wanted to prove everyone wrong. I went around intimidating and alienating everyone, I really never had a female friend I valued until I was 13.
I was constantly told that my attitude, demeanor and clothes were not right for a lady, but my mother was there to teach me that I can be whoever I want to be. I was told that I couldn't sit cross legged, I couldn't cut my hair short, couldn't wear those clothes, I shouldn't watch that and I shouldn't talk like that, but my mother let me do all those things. My mother liberated my from gender roles and all that other gender bullshit, she drummed into me that everyone is equal and we should all be treated as such.
When I was 14 I wore a skirt for the first time and on the way home two boys with a stick lifted it up and run off, I didn't wear one again until I was 20. 'Girls' clothes have always made me feel oppressed and downtrodden, wearing dresses and skirts when I'm out on my own I feel terrified and angry at how anyone looks at me.
Once I was walking to the doctors and a post man, old enough to be my grandfather, shouted 'get your bikkini out' at me. I stood there stumped, not understand what just happened and by the time I'd decided that that was inappropriate he was gone.

I hate society, I have to admit it has come a long way but it's still got light years to go until I'm going to be happy with it.

I work in a deli that sits inside of a small convenient store, I'm the one that takes orders and makes sandwiches while a male employee runs register and takes care of the store, which is kind of sexist in itself. I can not tell you how many times, male customers will go out of their way (i.e walk all the way across the store and ignore me standing behind the counter) to order a sandwich from my male coworker. Then, when I hand them the sandwhich I just made, they thank the male employee and ignore me again. It's sooo sad and annoys the crud out of me, like they won't talk to a woman.

Not the "biggest" form, but today at work, a man was yelling at a woman. All I heard was her say: "No, I'm going to do that," and then he yelled "You're gonna get it, you fucking whore." Okay, not only was it misogynistic as fuck, but also dehumanizing and cruel in general. There's one more guy never allowed into the building again.

Not the biggest, but I work with a lot of male blue-collar professionals who think it's cool to call us "sweetheart" and "honey" and one guy told my manager to put on lipstick and kiss the corners of his report.

My boyfriend has recently gotten into the habit of slapping my butt and when I tell him not to touch me like that he accused me of being grumpy because I'm tired.

When I was in high school, during P.E the teachers would never let us play rugby. We could play tag rugby, dodgeball and rounders, but never actual rugby because, and I quote, "We're not allowed to let you play rugby because it's too violent for you." We also weren't allowed to play contact sports (basically rugby) which was why they made us play tag rugby because snatching the tags away was "safer for us" than tackling other girls. My P.E teacher actually admitted to us that the school was sexist in the fact that they'd make us play netball and hockey and benchball and do gymnastics because they're "girl" sports while the boys played football and rugby and did scavenger hunts because they're the more physical sports.

I'm not even a sporty person, but I really wanted to play rugby when I was in year nine because I wanted to tackle people and play rough like that. It wasn't even my teachers that were the sexist ones; the school was the one who was prohibiting them from allowing us to play those sports. Ugh.

@ castiel's vessel
We had coed gym and I remember 100 pound me have to play dodgeball against several 200+ pound football players that were all at least a foot taller than me and I just remembered thinking 'this is bullshit'.

So is your case. I wouldn't have minded dodgeball in a group of women so much because it would have been more equal.

@ dru saves the songs
We didn't have coed P.E, although one time I refused to do dance and got to do circuit training with the boys which two of my friends. It was tiring and I hated it, but I hated dance more.

I didn't really find dodgeball equal because there'd be like a group of five girls ganging up on one girl on the other team and just pelting her with balls until she was out and then they'd move on to her teammates, and every time we played one team would be the girls who were athletic and into P.E while the other team would be the ones who disliked P.E and weren't terribly good with it which made it unequal anyway.

@ castiel's vessel
We had one PE class at my school that was card games and fishing. That class rocked. It was just really hard to get into freshman year.