So, early on Sundays at work is slow so I'm standing around chatting with my co workers when a customer comes through the line. He's a regular so I know I've seen him and he's seen me, though we've never really talked much outside of the usual set of question and answers. At work, I don't present either male or female. I put on my uniform leaving it loose so that my body shape is relatively vague. You get the idea of it but you don't really know the specifics.
Well, the guy walks up and says "Woah! Three ladies! I'm definitely out numbered."
Now, at this point, I'm happy because I've just been called a lady. However, I realized this was not in passing and this person is going to be around for a few more minutes. I stand nervously waiting for him to realize the error he has just made, and proceed to make some macho move to reassert his 'man hood'. In stead, he makes conversation with the others and as he leaves, he looks at me and says 'Thanks love'. Now, my name tag does have my 'real' name on it and it's very male, so at that moment I just nodded and sent him on his way. I was a bit scared that something -- anything -- was going to happen. It went smoothly.
Or maybe he meant lady in the derogatory sense. I guess I'll never know, but I'll take it at least.
