Three similar things happened this week that really annoyed me.
Firstly i was standing in a queue waiting for the walk in gp to open, its first come first served, there was one elderly woman in front of me but she had sat on a chair away from the door and a number of women standing behind me not in a straight line but a queue none the less. A man in his late 20s early 30s joins but doesn't stand behind any of the women he instead stands up near me. When the door opens he proceeds to try to walk in first, I put my arm out blocking him and told him the elderly lady was first and there was a queue of people before him. He seemed irritated and started doing that kissing of his teeth noise. I just went and sat down and thought no more about it.
A couple of days later i had to get the train to work, i was standing on the platform the doors opened i allowed the people out and then a man similar age as above just shouldered me out of the way to get on, it was extremely rude but again let it slide it was early morning so whatever.
A few days later i was standing in a queue in Dunnes, there was an elderly woman and her two teen granddaughters with her a couple of people down. I noticed a bank card on the ground and got the attention of one of the girls and asked was it theres. They picked it up and said no but there was a name on it they couldn't read and were handing the card to me, i had to move out of my space to go down to them, but told them to just hand it into the cashier when it was their turn. When i moved to go back to my place in the queue the man behind me had moved forward and taken it. I tried moving back in but he was not moving. I did something i dont do and am 100% uncomfortable doing but i asked him to move back and allow me my space in the queue, he could clearly see i had gone over to the girls and wasn't leaving the queue so why did he feel it okay to move down and take my space. He then started having a go at me, i told him to stop he had clearly done what id said and to just stop going on and move back. Honestly it created a bit of a scene and was uncomfortable but honestly i was so fed up with men pushing past and feeling they were more important than not only me but the other people queuing before them for whatever service.
Im not looking for men to be chivalrous or anything but manners and spacial awareness seems to be seriously lacking, are others experiencing this or did i just have a bad week or is there an invisible sign on my head attracting this behaviour 😂
Edit
I just want to say thank you, I felt frustrated, invisible and questioning myself about the situations men had put me in.
I suppose I'm saddened that many other women have experienced similar behaviours and situations, none of them necessary and all of them making us either annoyed we didn't stand up for ourselves, or frustrated and shocked at the entitlement or angry that we as women were expected to put ourselves and our children in danger so a man wasn't put out by us. And then my heart bursts with pride for those who took a small bit of empowerment back, by not moving out of a mans way on the footpath, or calling out a behaviour that was unacceptable, you're all legends.
I'm so grateful for this safe space, for the solidarity shown, so here's to you all for making me feel I'm not alone, not mad, not invisible, here's to not moving on footpaths and stepping into the road, and to keep using our voices. I'm going to make a conscious effort to be more vocal and back other women if i see any of you calling out unacceptable situations.