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How do you react to stereotypical/negative/sexist remarks/actions in your direction when they are seemingly positive in the offender's mind?

Asked by Simone_De_Beauvoir (39052points) October 1st, 2009

Let me elaborate…lots of times people will say something like ‘Oh! God damn, I love Russians’ or “Yay, I love Russian women like you” (when meeting me for the first time) or…‘oh queer people are great, I love you guys’ (what guys, us guys?)...or someone will say ‘oh you’re so strong for a woman’ as if that’s something positive and I’m supposed to what, say thank you? or they’ll be like ‘oh you’re not ugly for a mom of two, you still look smoking’ and apparently, that’s a compliment…

so what do you do? to respond to comments like that negatively would be perceived rude, right, because they’re supposedly saying something nice, in their mind? and it’s always something small, you know, nothing ‘to make a fuss over’ but it really gets to me, because it accumulates during the day…and it’s not like I’m going to get into discussion with people about stereotypes or sociological theories or how I don’t want to be called a woman or whatever…because their eyes will glaze over and I’ll feel more vulnerable…so in your life, what examples like these have you dealt with and how have you dealt with them?

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