I'm going
to try to keep this short. It's odd because I think I'm an incredibly laid back person, but when I actually thought about this there were so many things that got on my nerves that other people like. Most of them have been mentioned- anti-intellectualism, reality tv, Twilight, people not reading, Horne and Cordon, Gavin and Stacey, chavs etc. But one or two things genuinely incite me enough that I will perhaps rise from my chair, and even think about making a noise about it. And that's a lot.

Patronising people. I'm not a lesbian-seperatist-feminist-to-the-point-of-ludicrousness person, but there is nothing I resent more than someone who can't look past the fact that I am shortish, female, twenties, with big boobs. Sounds like a personal ad, but time after time people's eyes have looked away from me, to someone male standing at my side, and focused their enquiry on him. I'm forced to have to cough and point out that actually I'm the treasurer of the society/ customer/whatever, and they act as though the fault was mine. I hate the fact that just for being me, people think it is acceptable to stereotype me. That a mobile phone contract thinks a choice of Sugar for girls, and FHM for boys is an acceptable gender divide. That I'm expected to actually like Sex in the City, shoe shopping, Zac Efron and the rest of the shit they shovel us. A lot of my friends are goth and they say they don't have the same problem gender-wise, because their gothness overrides their gender-identity. Big boobs are an excuse for chavs to heckle you in the street. They override the politeness of strangers who think it's acceptable to take photos etc. They force me to work twice as hard at everything, to get the same amount of respect. Luckily most of my tutors are wonderful so no problem there. So not understanding either the attraction of big boobs, or of rudeness

And the same for disabled people. Disability mocking is so easy. I was in a wheelchair for a number of months due to a paralysing illness that gradually receded. And in that time I got treated like an idiot by anyone who talked to me. People would bring their children round for a second look, and let their children point at me and laugh. I tried to excuse them, they're kids and to see someone young and regular looking in a wheelchair was weird. But adults who made their voices specially loud and clear, and spoke to my parents pushing the chair instead of me with things like 'awww how long has she had it?' etc.

Sorry for such a rant, but it boils down to how people treat those who are different for whatever reason- sexuality, appearance, gender, disability, race, class. And as to the attraction for others? Well it must have some attraction or they wouldn't keep doing it
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:09, 17 replies)

Twenties, big boobs AND a wheelchair?
So, do you come here often?

Seriously though, despite being male, I can kind of sympathise. I distinctly recall having a lab partner as an undergrad who was rather ample-chested (wonder why I remember that...) and an old Russian guy as an instructor who seemed to have trouble coming to terms with the idea that women could be scientists. Every time she asked him a question, he'd answer me, as if she didn't exist. Which was not only really insulting for her, but also annoying for me as his accent was impossibly thick and his breath smelt fucking awful.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:21, closed)

I no longer have
a wheelchair fortunately. The paralysis entirely receded. I've lurked around b3ta for years, but the time when I was ill it was especially useful for a laugh.

And yeah I think scientists have it the worst. One of my friend's tutors still won't look at her in tutorials, or ask her any questions. And if she gets something wrong, she doesn't get reprimanded, it's as though she isn't worth the trouble of correcting
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:29, closed)

Unfortunately,
I was (in fact still am) in a department which contains a lot of old guys who are generally very well respected in their field, but have the age-old problem common to many physicists - they are tremendously awkward in the presence of women. Nobody corrected this whilst they were young undergrads or PhD students, and in the peak of their career, they probably only encountered women as secretaries. I suspect it may be too late for them and we'll just have to hope that subsequent generations will have it beaten/motorboated out of them...
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:38, closed)

yeah
just something that has to be endured. I have a cousin who does nuclear physics, and she still hasn't met a woman in the field where she works
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:44, closed)

You said boobs!
Now I'm a breast man, but I have to agree with you on this one, since I am capable of having a conversation with an attractive/well endowed person and direct my attention to their face and not their attributes. It annoys the hell out of me when that's all some people see.
They are lovely though. (Not yours, I mean in general. But I'm sure yours are nice too. Oh shit I'll stop digging now.)
( Blind Meach Cautiously optimistic, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:31, closed)

oh the wheelchair thing :o(
I never understood just how wierd people are until I had a brain haemorrage at 14 which left me in a wheelchair for several months.

The "is he ok?" one was bad enough - nobody wanted to talk to me and would direct all questions to whoever was wheeling me about at the time. I was even refered to as "the wheelchair" once by someone in a cafe. But worse were the people who would crouch down to below my eye level, look up at me and address me as if they were talking to a toddler. "ARE-YOU-AL-RIGHT??" in a slow, loud, patronising voice. Gahh!

Some of the shops I worked at had wheelchair bound customers and it made me cringe to see the way some of my colleagues spoke to them.
( h3donist tryin' to play me out as if my name is Sega.., Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:39, closed)

yeah
it was very tough. I was 19, stick thin because of months on a drip, and very self conscious of everything. I still cringe when people talk to disabled people like they are stupid, and make a point of talking normally. The worst one was the parent who was amazed at the sight, and actually walked round to take a second closer look.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:48, closed)

I had an operation on my foot once
in my 20s, and I had to use a walking stick for a little while. Even with just that pissy little thing, I copped the whole people-talking-to-me-like-I'm-deaf-or-stupid thing. WTF? It was just my foot! So I can only imagine what it must have been like for you. What the hell is wrong with people?

Old people used to look at me very suspiciously too, like it was all an elaborate plan to do them out of a seat on the bus.
( HairyCanary as Ann B. Davis as Alice, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 12:35, closed)

when I graduated to a walking stick
one old man sidled up to me, tutted and said 'you have been in the wars then.' It surprises them if you say 'yeah Iraq was hell.'
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:00, closed)

Clicked
You mirror my feelings entirely. I'm not of the ample chested variety, but I found it very annoying when shopping for a new telly when the assistants spoke to my boys - who were there for carrying duties only - not me who had the bits of paper with research one and was carrying the cards.

I got lucky with the whole wheelchair thing - one of my best mates at school was in a chair, so I'm pretty used to dealing with it. Part of what set me up for just treating people as individual people, not trying (and failing) to assign stereotypes.
(stimpy, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 11:50, closed)

Yes
you'd think it was the bad old days when a single woman couldn't buy a sofa unless she had a male co-signatory.

Being in a wheelchair really made me re-evaluate how we treat disabled people. I was lucky enough to get better totally and to walk again, but so many people aren't, and the last thing they need is discrimination.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 12:30, closed)

boobs
i used to have quite massive boobs(50jj) but, due to losing a lot of weight, they're now a more normal 38c. the difference in people's attitudes to me is unbelievable! men who would stare at me in the street now either ignore me or give me a polite nod, i don't get strange women coming up to me and telling me how lucky i am to have huge boobs(yeah, tell that to my back) and i don't get children gawping at me.
as for disability, i've been disabled since my early teens, but it's not something that you'd notice if i didn't tell you about it. i'm lucky in that way, i don't get treated like a drooling moron simply because i'm not perfect.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:16, closed)

Women
who say how lucky you are to have big boobs are invariably stick thin and perfect looking. I'm a size 12 atm, with 32H which means buying clothes is a nightmare because clothes strain and stretch and look tarty on me.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 14:58, closed)

it's ridiculous
you end up having to wear t-shirts that stretch over your boobs and hang everywhere else
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 16 Oct 2009, 15:06, closed)

maybe a boob tube (station) might accomodate them better?
*runs like fuck*
( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 17 Oct 2009, 19:41, closed)

say that again
and i'll flubber you to death with the fuckers!
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 19 Oct 2009, 19:22, closed)