Customers and comments on physical appearance

[Despina83]

A cashier at my store has really sparse, thinning hair. A little girl of about 4 was at her register and said to her, "You have ugly hair!" The father? He just gave her a little "now, now" look but remained silent. Neither scolded the kid nor apologized to the cashier.

This came a day after a girl who works on the sales floor with me and was wearing her hair up was told by an old lady, "I thought you were a guy until I saw your bun!" She didn't even accidently call the worker sir, so there was no need to even go there.

[Shieldbreaker]

What you want manners out of people nowadays.......?

Seems like as I grow older, not wiser mind you, that I see more and more that would have gotten me slapped when I was younger.

[Iolanthe]

When I was a teenager, working at the Golden Arches, I had a similar experience, except with the store owner's little daughter. Unfortunately as a teenager I had pretty bad acne and when the little girl came up to the counter she said, "Ewww, what is on your face?" Which of course being a teenager made me super paranoid about the acne. The mother didn't say a word to the child about how inappropriate it was to say something like that even though the child was old enough to understand how inappropriate it was. Of course she was a little princess but that is an entirely different story.
I know through experiences like that I have learned to be more careful of what I say about other people, and always have a hope, albeit only a slight one sadly, that other people will eventually learn to not insult people or say things to hurt others.

[Gaki]

Oh my I get this all the time.

Just today I had a guy refer to me as "young man" to another customer (who was a piece of work herself, harping over I.D. policies) and kept calling me "he" and "him" the whole time. Then he told me I didn't look my age and that I looked "so young."

Yeah. I would. Since I can't grow facial hair and I look like a 12 year old man if I were even a man at all. MY VOICE IS SUPER FEMININE. I LOOK LIKE A GIRL. For some reason, old people continue to get hung up on the "you have short hair, you must be male" mindset.

I don't bother correcting people. It's a waste of time and I hate it when they apologize.

[Silent-Hunter]

That's because in their day, only men had short hair, so to them anyone with short hair must be a man. It does NOT excuse them not paying attention to your voice and the rest of your appearance though.

[cindybubbles]

I've had that experience in my college years. Often people will see my back and, because of my hair, sneakers, clothes and backpack, assume that I'm a young man until they see my face. Then they get all red-faced and "Sorry!", and stuff like that.

[MoonCat]

A little girl of about 4 was at her register and said to her, "You have ugly hair!"

I would probably have answered with "And you have an ugly mouth on you."

[MadMike]

I've had that experience in my college years. Often people will see my back and, because of my hair, sneakers, clothes and backpack, assume that I'm a young man until they see my face. Then they get all red-faced and "Sorry!", and stuff like that.

I had the opposite happen when I went on my last cruise. I was standing at the counter buying some pictures, when I heard someone behind me say, "Excuse me, ma'am?" I didn't think she was talking to me, since... well I'm a guy. Then she repeated it again, and touched my shoulder. I guess she saw the long hair and didn't think I was a guy. She turned red and apologized when I turned around and she saw my beard.