Women's Work
Oct. 22nd, 2007 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xakaraDid you know women are allowed to work at night? No really, even late at night. It's true. Some of my male customers didn't get the memo and are left aghast and wondering when such things came to be.
Let me say the for the most part, they are total sweethearts concerned about my safety in a fatherly way. They just can't believe that someone would put little-ole-me on the overnight shift with "so much going on out there". I appreciate it and I understand that many of them have daughters my age (or most often, the age they guess I am) and would just keel over if they were working the shift I work. It's sweet and the interaction ends with "have a good and safe night." I can take a bit of throwback mentality if it ends like that.
From there we have the men, most who are too young for me, that point out the obvious as an effort to bring game. "Why are working here this late as a female? No disrespect, but where is your man that you gotta be out here? I make enough that my woman wouldn't have to do something like this." Oookay. Hooray for your side and yay for your woman. Although it's unlikely she'd be happy because there's a reason you're single and hitting on me in the middle of the night. Or, you're not single and that's just so much worse.
Then there's the college crowd that seems stunned I can work third shift and still make it to my classes the next day. Let me point out that I haven't attended classes in over a decade, but hey, no complaints that it doesn't look that way. For this group, pointing out that I'm a woman on the overnight shift is more of a conversation starter. It leads to the second question of "what does your boyfriend think about it?", which of course establishes whether or not such a being exist or if I might be open to applications for the position.
As 70% of my customers are male, the course of my night goes as above, with a few neutral folks who don't seem to notice I'm female and it's three in the morning. Or if they notice, aren't brave enough to say anything to me about it. It makes for an interesting night.
To clarify for those wondering, no, I don't get hit on during my shifts because I'm cover model material. The propositions are because I'm short and cute and polite and smiley, and I have a perky retail voice that I could take out a patent on. I'm safe. I'm also behind bullet-proof glass which means that they are behind bullet-proof glass, so if I take it the wrong way, they have time to get away.
I know that's a contradiction, but being a Woman of Color is a contradiction. I'm seen as heartier, sturdier, and generally more intimidating. At the same time, I'm under 5'4, my voice is baby-friendly which means higher pitched, and I'm curvy and retail-perky, so there's only so intimidating I can be until you piss me off. Once you've pissed me off or witnessed someone else piss me off, I'm intimidating period. Most of my friends have recovered, but none of them want to upset me. *grin*.
Since my customers don't get to see that aspect, (and hopefully never will as there's only one crazy guy so far), the illusion of safety is there to balance the instinct to tread with care and it let's them say whatever they need to say and get away clean. :)
Thanks for hanging for the ramble. I have to work tonight and needed a distraction so that I went in with a different mindset. I didn't want to go, still don't, I don't do weekdays. But at least now I've focused on an interesting aspect of dealing with people through the night and I'm not dreading going in.
Off to get ready.
Work Ramble Done
~X
From there we have the men, most who are too young for me, that point out the obvious as an effort to bring game. "Why are working here this late as a female? No disrespect, but where is your man that you gotta be out here? I make enough that my woman wouldn't have to do something like this." Oookay. Hooray for your side and yay for your woman. Although it's unlikely she'd be happy because there's a reason you're single and hitting on me in the middle of the night. Or, you're not single and that's just so much worse.
Then there's the college crowd that seems stunned I can work third shift and still make it to my classes the next day. Let me point out that I haven't attended classes in over a decade, but hey, no complaints that it doesn't look that way. For this group, pointing out that I'm a woman on the overnight shift is more of a conversation starter. It leads to the second question of "what does your boyfriend think about it?", which of course establishes whether or not such a being exist or if I might be open to applications for the position.
As 70% of my customers are male, the course of my night goes as above, with a few neutral folks who don't seem to notice I'm female and it's three in the morning. Or if they notice, aren't brave enough to say anything to me about it. It makes for an interesting night.
To clarify for those wondering, no, I don't get hit on during my shifts because I'm cover model material. The propositions are because I'm short and cute and polite and smiley, and I have a perky retail voice that I could take out a patent on. I'm safe. I'm also behind bullet-proof glass which means that they are behind bullet-proof glass, so if I take it the wrong way, they have time to get away.
I know that's a contradiction, but being a Woman of Color is a contradiction. I'm seen as heartier, sturdier, and generally more intimidating. At the same time, I'm under 5'4, my voice is baby-friendly which means higher pitched, and I'm curvy and retail-perky, so there's only so intimidating I can be until you piss me off. Once you've pissed me off or witnessed someone else piss me off, I'm intimidating period. Most of my friends have recovered, but none of them want to upset me. *grin*.
Since my customers don't get to see that aspect, (and hopefully never will as there's only one crazy guy so far), the illusion of safety is there to balance the instinct to tread with care and it let's them say whatever they need to say and get away clean. :)
Thanks for hanging for the ramble. I have to work tonight and needed a distraction so that I went in with a different mindset. I didn't want to go, still don't, I don't do weekdays. But at least now I've focused on an interesting aspect of dealing with people through the night and I'm not dreading going in.
Off to get ready.
Work Ramble Done
~X
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-23 04:33 pm (UTC)And you're the one person here who has seen/felt how much my Sense-of-Self takes up and what happens when you place me in the wrong mindframe. LOL
You gotta do something when height leaves you behind and youth is blessed on you for a long time. Everyone looks and thinks that if you're little you're automatically this cuddly litte Ewok. It helps to remind them the Ewoks smacked the storm troopers up!
~X