More Laugh, Cry or Go Postal? Fun
Published by Lisa Kansas May 15th, 2008 in What Patriarchy?, Work, FUCKING IDIOTS, If I have to suffer you have to sufferI spent a day offsite again–my company is building a new, very large scale manufacturing facility and so we are buying all kinds of goodies for it from a whole slew of outside companies. On this occasion, the company in question was going to show us their pride and joy, a software package that simulates mixing behavior inside various types of stirred tanks. So we watched the demo in the morning, then they brought some lunch in and we had time to ask various questions more pertinent to our specific applications. I am only peripherally involved in this project so I didn’t get deeply engaged–I made a few comments about comparability of results involving various mixer designs but other than that pretty much just munched pizza and listened to everybody else talk.
After lunch was over, the simulation engineer asked if we wanted a quick tour of the shop. We all agreed that would be interesting and informative and got to our feet, and as we were all milling around securing laptops and dumping pizza trash he said to me, very abruptly, “Don’t be scared if they holler at you.”
I froze in mid-dump, then peeked around to insure that he was, in fact, speaking to me; he was, judging from the peculiar paralyzed looks on the faces of our corporate engineer and project manager standing right behind me. So I returned my attention to him: small guy, mid to late twenties, skinny with a pot belly, black-framed glasses, earnest expression. “I’m sorry?” I said, totally confused.
“The guys,” he said, and essayed a smile. Note: We had all gone round the room with the standard introductions that morning, but aside from that, this guy had not once made eye contact with me, and had only spoken to me in direct response to my few earlier queries during lunch; I hadn’t even thought he’d really noticed my existence. “They’re not used to seeing anyone like you on the floor.”
Light dawned. I involuntarily glanced down at myself, half expecting to see my quite boring business casual ensemble of button-down shirt, slacks and loafers completely replaced with a red leather miniskirt, platform shoes and a corset, but no–a snort issued from someone behind me and I straightened back up to stare at him. “I’m sorry I shaved off my moustache this morning–I just wasn’t thinking,” I said cheerily. He turned red, which pleased me enough to add, “Maybe you should let those poor guys out of their cages at night, you know, so they can mix with the rest of humanity more often, see a few girls now and then!”
Suspense! Did he pass out from mortification and/or apologize for being a complete and unprofessional moron? Nope to either one. Though I am happy to report that he did not inflict any more conversation upon me for the rest of our sojourn there. And did any of those shop floor savages holler, hoot, whistle, catcall or make any other vocal incursions upon my person? No, in fact they did not. Til the next time, signing off!
–Lisa, the Perky Girl Engineer
That’s awesome. That’s the kind of comeback I wouldn’t think of until a day later. You must have had a lot of practice.
How could they be used to seeing anyone like you, baby, when you know there ain’t no one like you.
PS: Did you wash your clothes in Windex? Because I can really see myself in your pants.
And I’m really tired cause I’ve been RUNNING THROUGH YOUR MIND ALL DAY…ha!
Tragically yes, I have tons of practice at this point. About 16 years worth, counting the Army. I discovered very early on that making the speaker look like a complete idiot is the best offense. heh.
Unless everybody hates these charming lil tales, I will be able to provide about one a month, minimum, cause that’s what it is to be noticeably chick-like in an overwhelmingly male-dominated profession. You notice though that these are all occurring OFF MY USUAL JOB SITE…it is possible that I have shall we say *trained* those I work with on a daily basis not to expose themselves to this degree of ridicule. But it takes a while to do this…months to YEARS. I am not kidding. (sigh)
When I started reading this, my eyes fell first on a later paragraph…the first thing I read was “I froze in mid-dump” and I was expecting a VERY different post than this one…
I guess I don’t get it, though - it sounded to me like he was trying to warn you about impending catcalling…? There must be some subtext or critical point I’m missing here - was it that he said it in front of everyone? Can someone please explain this to me?
Thanks,
MH
Aww, you know stories aren’t so funny when you gotta explain the punchline!
…Actually, I started to answer you, and realized that my reply was turning into an entire post in of itself. So I’ll just do that instead.
MH, you are correct. The young engineer was trying to look out for the frail woman in the group, and to warn her to expect a hostile environment.
In the process, he was
1) assuming that she had no idea that obviously female type people are somewhat unusual in her profession
2) asserting that she is indeed unusual, with the implication that her presence might be deemed inappropriate
3) asserting that catcalls are to be expected, because she is a woman in a male environment, and what can you do when you introduce that powerful a stimulant into everyone’s everyday working environment, women just need to accept this. In other words, sexist behaviour is normative in his environment, and rather than condemn the people who might (and in this case didn’t) engage in it, it’s enough to warn any woman foolish enough to want to enter a masculine domain.
4) assuming that as a woman in a male-dominated environment, Lisa hadn’t dealt with sexism before, ever.
At least, that’s how I read it.
Lisa, as a woman working in a female-dominated environment, who still finds herself developing techniques for dealing with sexism and condescension, I welcome your tales.
That reminds me of the time when I was inspecting a roof, there was a 30′ extension ladder sticking up right behind me, and a guy came up to me and said “How did you get up here?”
Zingerella, very astute interpretation!
Thanks zingerella, that helps. I will think on all you’ve said. See my comment in the followup post.
I’ve worked on factory shop floors as a machine operator and in shipping/receiving. I can’t imagine anyone making catcalls against a visitor without getting fired. Not that there might not be some staring and surreptitious comments, but outright catcalls? Towards a guest? Who might actually be a client or upper management or, as in your case, a vendor, or maybe even a relative of the boss? Wouldn’t happen, I think.
A regular female employee on the floor might occasionally be subject to some taunts and ribbing- and all the ones I worked with gave as good as they got. I’m sure Lisa, with her military experience, is well familiar with that. But teasing someone you know and work with every day is a far cry from catcalling a complete stranger on the premises, touring the factory in the company of management.
That this tool felt the need to warn you says it all: he thinks it’s normal and appropriate when everyone else there, even the biggest pig on the shop floor, knows it isn’t. IF anything like that had ever happened before, the warning should go to the shop dudes, not to the potential victim.
I doubt it ever had happened before. This guy probably has as much of a clue about the people in his own shop as Mike from “The Office” (US) had about his warehouse people. And obviously as much respect for their professionalism.
LOL, yeah, that was EXACTLY it!
Oh yes, the dynamics of being on the floor (or out in the field re the military) are quite, quite different. Hmm, that would be a good post, prolly…