Today, I had my first gender inspired prejudiced sports moment in a while. Not the every day kind I usually get. I mean the kind that annoys me even now, at 1:25 am. Leave it to the lanky, pasty boy working at Sports Fanatic in West County Mall to make me want to punch a, well um, lanky pasty boy.
I was trying to make a miraculous last minute birthday gift possible. My guy cousin is a Packers fan. Trying to be the hero who got him a Favre replica jersey, my gal cousin and I walked into the sports store and I promptly asked lanky, pasty boy how much the Favre replica jerseys cost.
Now, I worked at a sports store for a few years. I know that if a woman, or man, walked into a sports store and used the sports clothing jargon "replica" then they probably had a pretty good idea of what they were talking about. I wasn't going to question the man or woman's sports intelligence. If a guy/gal walked in and said "I want the real thing" I would assume he/she meant an "authentic jersey". If a guy/gal walked in and said, "I want the cheaper one", I would assume he/she meant "the replica" and so on, and so forth. If I was still working at a sports store, and had even a smidgeon of doubt whether the customer attempting to purchase the replica jersey might be aware of Favre's announced retirement for some crazy reason, I would have smartly remarked on the fact that the jersey had been a hot item since Favre had retired the previous week. This being the less insulting and obvious way of making sure the customer was aware they were purchasing a retired player's jersey, of course.
But oh, not lanky, pasty boy. First, he innocently remarked, "well, that's the only one left. Does this guy fit into a 5XL?" and then as we joked that he would probably not, he immediately jumped on the "girl equals no sports knowledge" wagon and remarkably asked, "Now, you DO know he retired, don't you?" Wow, my cousin and I just stared at him for a moment before my cousin asked in heavy sarcasm, "What? He retired!?!?!?!?" and looking around in mock surprise, I sarcastically added, "Wait, is this a sports store!?!?!?!" I immediately tried to rectify the situation by saying, "yes, we do know he retired, just recently in fact. But I was assuming the future hall of famer's jersey would still be a hot commodity". Which, as it turns out, was the reason for no more Favre replica jerseys being available, as this hot commodity had quickly sold out. Makes sense, huh? Well, he didn't explain himself and probably just continued to assume we were way in over our heads. We left the store, marveling at our missed opportunity to add, "This 'Favor' guy, is it? Was he any good?" Darn.
Now, before you go attempting to defend him by saying I'm overly sensative because I am a girl or that I'm over-reacting, I want you to ask yourself this. Would lanky, pasty boy had dared ask a guy, no matter his age, no matter his appearance, whether he knew that Favre had retired? No. No he would not have. And that's what angered me. I throw my sports clothing jargon out there and he still didn't latch on. He continued to float out into the abyss that is ignorance and incomprehension.
Kind of ironic, considering he assumed I was the ignorant one. But, that's the life of a sports gal, I presume. I still marvel at how little fan credibility I receive because I don't pee standing.
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