What have you been mistaken for in your life? In highschool people thought I was a lesbian.

[applegrove]

I have a male brain and was more into cracking jokes than giggleling at them. I looked girly but wasn't...which was too much information for highschool boys to process. LOL!

[Angry Dragon]

1. People think I am a god

[applegrove]

2. LOL!

[freshwest]

13. That's because you are! Just like me!

[Quartermass]

3. People call me a faggot because I don't have a girlfriend.

Where I live there's still a lot of bigotry towards homosexuals and anybody who isn't "normal". whatever the hell that is.

[applegrove]

7. I loved my late twenties because I put all that highschool scapegoating, that I was a victim of,

away and concentrated on who I was for once. People are more sophisticated and accepting when you get older. Made me so happy to be who I am. My life got bad again because of some monster for years. I've certainly seen the best of people and the worst of people since then, and I always go back to those times in my life with family, and friends in my late twenties, when I was encouraged to be me and grow. And I know how great it will feel again to be free of small minds. I take the long view. Keeps things in perspective.

[Doc Holliday]

22. "Normal? That's easy."

"Normal is what everyone else is, and you aren't." - Malcolm McDowell to LeVar Burton, Star Trek: Generations

[freshwest]

4. Same here but it didn't stop in high school, kinda funny since I was married...

But I was always told that I 'thought like a man.'

Everyone's got someone trying to put them in a box, usually to feel superior.

I've been accused of being a fundie for showing empathy to them to bring them out, and a lot of other things.

Just showing an open mind and giving all people respect, leads to a lot of insults.

Some people imagine they have you all figured out and you're not on their team and attack.

That's why I keep to myself.

[applegrove]

8. I love your posts freshwest. You are very open. Whatever you are doing - keep doing it.

[freshwest]

10. Thanks, I'm catching hell for it in GD at least once a day.

Some of my posts are trying to talk it out and learn, just like yours, which I enjoy too.

And it was either come over here tonight or sign out for a few weeks, maybe. I'm tired of people trying to squeeze me in those boxes.

My infinite consciousness hates it when that happens! Ouch!

[Yo_Mama]

35. Uggh

Just showing an open mind and giving all people respect, leads to a lot of insults.

It's so sad that your statement is ABSOLUTELY TRUE.

[freshwest]

37. Sometimes I wonder if people are *in* the present tense. Seems like they are giving people...

The vitriol they felt from prior life experiences no one knows about. Nothing is neutrally charged, just one key word is a trigger and bang, off they go.

It makes it hard to find common ground. I suspect there is a lot of pain behind that, which could be healed if they gave someone a chance to know it.

Somedays, I wonder if we forget we are (allegedly) all Democrats here, which should at least give some sense of unity and respect.

Thanks for your reply.

[cyberswede]

5. A healthcare provider, of all things

At various doctors appointments with my kids, while we're discussing symptoms or whatever, the doctor will ask me if I'm a health care provider.

I'm not, but I've worked at an academic medical center since I was an undergrad, so I know how they talk and how they proceed through an exam.

[applegrove]

9. When I took my bronze medallion swimming course when I was 16, people asked me if I was a nurse

because I got the biology part so well.

[NJCher]

6. People think I'm in charge

Wherever I go, people come up and ask me questions. They think I run the place.

I used to think it was because I didn't wear outdoor wear, like a coat. But it happens in the summer, too.


Cher

[freshwest]

12. Man, I hate it when that happens. People tried to make me the leader and I didn't want it.

In school I learned to play dumb, until I got to college and at last I could be myself.

I've caught people in my personal life repeating what I say like I'm a fricking oracle. Making life decisions on what I thought, for crying out loud!

So I've gone back to playing dumb around most people again.

[raccoon]

64. That's what I call "the Claudius trick." sometimes it comes in handy. nt

[beac]

11. My husband thought I was married to someone else when we met.

He was SHOCKED when I asked him out and we had a few minutes of a very confusing and then very hilarious conversation to sort that out.

[freshwest]

14. So glad you sorted that out!

[spooky3]

15. Marie Osmond

Though as the years go by and the plastic surgery gap between us widens, I don't get that as often !

[freshwest]

16. It's all good!

[spooky3]

23. yah!

[Swede]

17. Folks always think I'm with the band.

Must be the long hair and black t-shirt.

[freshwest]

19. And your love of music. You've outed yourself here!

[Swede]

20. Mums the word.

[BiggJawn]

18. A Professor...

Because I work at the "U" and am always experimenting with antennas or working with my Bonsai or something.

I don't even have a BS.

[Quartermass]

21. A phenomenon I often run into

Whenever I disagree with or question conservatives, they call me liberal bastard.

Whenever I disagree with or question liberals, they call my conservative bastard.

I have only one response to that way of thinking.

Sigh.

[Curmudgeoness]

28. So, there is only one thing everyone has in common

in their opinion of you? Oh my.

[Populist_Prole]

48. They do the same exact thing to me, and always over one single issue

Like I'm not being a good team player ( which I am not anyway, by nature )

[Moondog]

24. Normal (n/t)

[Doc Holliday]

25. Because of my nickname

I often get asked if I'm really a doctor.

My stock answer is, "No, but I used to do a lot of volunteer work at the breast exam clinic."

[noamnety]

26. I found out all my students thought I was a lesbian

I wore a wedding ring, but I guess the flannel and hiking boots sent a louder message.

[Curmudgeoness]

27. I didn't have that problem in high school.

In fact, I had a reputation for being too easy---which I wasn't, and that caused considerable problems.

But as a single woman, once I hit about 30 (along with liking to wear my hair really really short), I am always assumed to be a lesbian. I am not, but I have had my fill of men too. I don't really care. Actually, I should amend this to say that people who are not lesbians assume that I am a lesbian.

Funny how straight people often have these stupid stereotypes that they just hang on to. I have a lesbian friend who lives in a huge city, and when she was visiting once, she said that she was confused by all the women here---in the sticks, she said she would pick most of the women out as lesbians. She was confused.

[frogmarch]

29. When I was 13, I was mistaken for

my best friend’s mom. My best friend Betty and I were heading downtown on Saturday morning to meet friends at the corner drugstore for Cokes, and as we walked by our English teacher’s house, she saw us and called me over and asked if I’d like to take the test I’d missed the week before when I was home with a cold. So Betty and I went into her house, and Betty visited with the teacher’s friend while I took the test. Betty told me that the friend thought I was her mom.

Holy crap, I was only 13! I was in fact about 6 months younger than Betty, and like her, I had no wrinkles, and was straight up and down, and could have passed for a boy. We were the same height too. I shouldn’t have been shocked, though, that someone thought I was old enough to be her mom, because the year before, when I was 12, people at a swimming pool where I’d taken my 6-year-old sister to swim thought I was her mom.

When I became an adult, I liked that I didn’t look older than my age, and that some people actually thought I was younger. I’m 68 now and some people say I don’t look it, but now I almost take it as an insult – like it’s okay to be 68 as long as one doesn’t look it.

[MiddleFingerMom]

30. Around 1980-81, I was night manager of a happenin' live rock and roll bar in Michigan.

.
.
.
That day, I rode my motorcycle to the bar and my headlight shorted out, so
when it came time to leave, I was going to follow a waitress's car very closely
in order to get it home. When I got the bike from the shed where I stored it
while working, she told me the police had come through the parking lot, cruising
VERY slowly and checking her out. "They're gonna be coming back for sure!!!"
.
I decided to leave the bike there and just have her drive me home. Before we
could leave, the cruiser came back and stopped next to us. One single female
cop. I told her I was the night manager and we had just closed and were going
home. I couldn't find my driver's license and only had a checkbook for ID. She
called it in, thanked me and told us to have a good night.
.
Two miles down the road, in an area thick with fastfood joints, she lit up her
lights and pulled us over in a parking lot. I got out of the car... FIVE other cop
cars screeched in and they all jumped out and racked and leveled shotguns at
my head.
.
She said they needed more ID -- luckily I found a previously overlooked old
military picture ID with my SS# on it.
.
She called it in... they relaxed and left. She told me that there was someone in
Michigan with my same name who was wanted for armed robbery and attempted
murder.
.
To this day, I'm still proud that I didn't soil or wet myself looking down the barrels
of all those shotguns.
.
.
.

[applegrove]

32. Oh that sounds so scary.

[Kali]

43. hahahahhaha!

M had a similar experience - pulling the stock trailer in one of our beater trucks with Watson in the cab.

he was out looking for hay or had a load or something, and had passed some kind of obvious cop meet-up or stake-out. After a few miles he sees a line of them in the mirror and the first starts his lights and sirens so M pulls off to the side - and runs over a bottle or something so it makes a LOUD bang, they jump out with guns pulled, hiding behind the trailer and their vehicles and start yelling for him to get out with hands in sight etc. Meanwhile Watson is screaming his head off and biting the seat.

Seems some guy in a beater truck with a red stock trailer had murdered somebody and robbed their house...

needless to say there was a lot of adrenalin flowing around the scene and Watson always reacts to that with calmness. NOT.

I think M had the same pride of clean undies as you.

[JoePhilly]

31. I am mistaken for .... some one they know.

I'm a white guy, 6 foot tall, in my mid 40s, but my age is not obvious ... I can look anywhere from 30s to 50s ... light brown hair (almost zero gray), a little thicker in the middle than I was when I was younger.

Almost anywhere I go, people are SURE they know me from somewhere. Or they know my older or younger brother. They make me stand there answering questions until it becomes clear that they don't know me and don't know my brother (because I don't have one).

When I was in my 20s, people in line at the grocery store would start telling me their life story ... as if they knew me. Happened all the time. Still does.

And my name is Joe. They all know a few Joes. And so they must know me too. At least that's what they think.

The upside is that, apparently, I am so generic, I can go into almost environment and "blend in" ... put me in a suit, I'm an executive, put me in overalls, I'm a Tea Party member.

I'm pretty sure that if I ever had to disappear, I could simply blend in and be gone.

[applegrove]

33. I'm very generic for Nova Scotia where I spent some time. And yes many of my ancestors are from

there. But there seemed to be a twin of mine in Cape Breton, NS.. a place I have not been to since I was 4.

[MiddleFingerMom]

36. I get the same thing a LOT.

.
.
.
I have kind of a generic hippie biker look. I've always been amazed that someone
who was PISSED at the person they're mistaking me for didn't punch me out before
they realized their mistake.
.
.
.
I did get wrapped up and kissed very passionately by a very hot woman once.
I suffered through it.
.
.
.
For as long as I possibly could.
.
.
.

[JoePhilly]

50. Haha ... never had that happen.

[UrbScotty]

34. Many people thought my name is Steve, even though it's Scott.

Everyone from one of my elementary school teachers to someone I knew at church in college.

[Odin2005]

38. I had the opposite problem, I'm a "sensitive" guy and got called a faggot.

[applegrove]

39. I grew up around sensitive men. In high school I should have been hanging around with the likes

of you but didn't. I can't stand arrogance.

[HuckleB]

41. Really?

[Odin2005]

42. YA RLY!

[HuckleB]

44. Interesting.

Very interesting.

[HuckleB]

40. Many people think I'm lazy and stupid...

... hey, wait a minute...

[kentauros]

45. As a freshman in high school,

people thought I was a senior! Because I didn't act juvenile like my counterparts. Of course, that was from people not in Band, so they had no idea just how crazy I actually was (partly due to my equally crazy Band friends.)

[marzipanni]

72. As a freshman in high school people thought I was older than 13-14.

My brother was at college and when I visited his dorm one guy said, "Oh, N____, you didn't tell me you had a younger sister!", and gave me a bear hug and a big wet kiss on the lips. I thought it was funny. His friends though I was closer to their age, but then when I was a senior I had gained ten or so lbs. and people thought I looked younger, or my age (baby face?)

I encouraged my son to play an instrument and he's been in band since 5th grade- most of his friends are in band or Arts and Design Academy now that he's a junior- a good bunch of kids.

[ElboRuum]

46. I keep getting mistaken for someone who gives a shit.

[seabeyond]

47. a guy that wanted to date first thought i was a virgin (just hesitant on going out), to a lesbian

(there has to be a reason i dont want to go out) to a ho (when i went out to dinner with a X pro football player), lol.

that was a hoot.

[Populist_Prole]

49. "Establishment" types that thought I was a drug-head because I wore my hair long-ish

Rarely wore collared shirts and never creased slacks like Dockers and shit. Some people at places I used to work in my 20's to early 30's never seemed to respect me because I didn't look like some corporate robot ( and in a skilled blue collared place no less ) and had an iconoclastic vibe somehow. I'm glad those in charge knew what to look for in an employee, and knew I was a good reliable employee with a better than usual work ethic, but I could definitely tell others in management did not like me would NOT have hired me if it were up to them.

Never did get the whole "if you don't look like some GQ model you must be into drugs" mentality. We can't all be Gordon Gekkos.

[MissHoneychurch]

51. When I was a nanny

one of the parents at one point thought I was the mother of the kid I took care of. Excuse me??? I was 20 and the boy 7. How old did I look???????????????

[Bossy Monkey]

52. Earthling. n/t

[Enrique]

53. people sometimes think I'm religious

i tell them no, I'm just an uptight athiest.

[bigwillq]

54. Cocaine dealer (nt)

[deutsey]

55. I've had a few times, especially when I was younger, when people mistook me for Art Garfunkel

That's when I used to let my hair grow out.

[baldguy]

56. I worked in a Japanese resaurant when I was in high school.

So, of course the customers assumed this hazel/blue-eyed German-Irish kid was Japanese, too.

[Denninmi]

57. A retail worker.

Why? Because I generally NEVER wear a coat, even in the winter. At least, that is my theory.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've been approached in stores with "Where is the ____?" or similar questions.

So, people wandering around in stores in winter just naturally assume anyone without a coat MUST WORK THERE.

NO, PEOPLE, I DON'T WORK HERE!

[chrisa]

58. People think I'm still in High School for some reason

(I'm not even in college anymore. It's kind of weird.)

[AsahinaKimi]

59. Well hard to believe but once in Arizona

While standing in a Grocery store line I was asked if I was a Native American...
I politely said no, that I was Japanese and Korean.

Kimiko

[LynneSin]

60. I was thought to be a Satan worshipper because I listened to Led Zeppelin

The Xtian kids in my school were pretty wacko which is why I have little tolerance for religious idiots today!

[Doc Holliday]

63. In the little West Texas high school

that I went to, if you listened to Zeppelin, Cream, Hendrix, et. al., you were a "hippie." You were also assumed to be on drugs of some kind.

Two choices-- cowboy or hippie. No middle ground.

Consequently, we "hippies" waved our freak flag high!

[LanternWaste]

61. When I meet someone, within five or ten minutes, they invariably say something along the lines of

When I meet someone, within five or ten minutes, they invariably say something along the lines of, "oh, you're one of those smart, brainy fellers, huh?"

Which is puzzling because I'm not very clever at all... merely quiet (Realization hits: I may have answered my own riddle).

Luckily, most times I'm out and about, I have friends with me who will make a point to let the stranger know in no uncertain terms that they are indeed and in fact wrong.

[sakabatou]

62. I was once mistaken for Daniel Radcliffe when I was younger

[ashling]

65. My gym teachers (aka coaches)

thought I was a bump on a log.

[Charlemagne]

66. In HS, people thought I was catholic

In college they thought I was Jewish.

Im neither. I dont know why but it happened a lot. I have blond hair and blue eyes so the whole "Mediterranean" excuse is out.

[Doc Holliday]

67. In college

I had a gal-pal tell me once that, among a certain group of female students, the word "interesting" was used as a code word for Jewish....as in, "He (or she) looks interesting."

I suppose if religion were of more importance in my life I might get why a code word was necessary. But, then again, maybe not.

[Charlemagne]

68. No girls ever

told me I was interesting :/

I got a lot of "I dont care" and "ugh, go away."

I just got asked a lot about my thoughts on the holocaust and if my family was in it.....what this or that holiday meant, etc.

Good times, Doc.

[cliffordu]

69. ON a cross country trip 15 years ago I was stopped and surrounded by three women

in a convenience store who, smiling brightly and slightly out of breath asked me for my autograph......

I backed up a little and said 'Wha??"

The reddest of them said:

"Aren't you Billy Bob Thornton??"

[HopeHoops]

70. Tommy Chong.

Wait. I STILL look like Tommy Chong.

[bikebloke]

71. People thought I was John Lennon.

Even though he was just killed.

[NewJeffCT]

73. I keep getting mistaken for husband material

I've managed to find two otherwise intelligent & attractive women that made that mistake about me.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

74. I could never buy "party favors" at Dead shows because I looked like a cop.

My buddy and I arrived late to a show in Auburn Hill, Mich. so we were in a hurry to do our business and get in the show. We split up to scour the parking lot. Anyway, my buddy gets a "lead" and is talking to this young hippy kid and here I come running up like a puppy dog - the hippy kid's eyes get as big as saucers and runs away like a scalded dog. My buddy yells at me to go wait in the car.

[RZM]

75. When I was younger and had long hair I was mistaken for a woman on numerous occasions

Twice I had people refuse to sell me alcohol because they believed my ID was fake and that I had used a woman's picture.

What's funny about that is I started lifting weights in my mid-20s and lost my hair. By my late 20s, I was being mistaken for an army vet and even the bouncer at bars. Once somebody even came up to me demanding I toss somebody!

[MrScorpio]

76. When I told people that I was in the Air Force they'd ask me if I were a pilot

I told them, "Sure... I pilot a desk.".

Or they'd ask me if I fly and I told them that I prefer the window seat.

[Aristus]

78. Some people think I look like Paul Giamatti.

That's not too bad; in the movies, he's always hooking up with ragingly hot women. I married a ragingly hot woman. It's all good...

[krispos42]

79. My mom's younger brother

Oy.

[Neoma]

80. A man.

I don't wear makeup, so they mistake me for one I guess. Usually always by waiters and waitresses.

I've also been mistaken for a homemaker and someone who actually gets money for free-lancing. When someone asks me what I do, I have 3 answers: I read, I write, or I'm an artist. Which is all true. I think next time I'll say I'm an animator since I'm getting into that...

I hate people who think life is all about acquiring monies.

[fizzgig]

81. i was a lesbian vampire in high school

at least if you listened to the neanderthals i went to school with.

also, everyone assumed i was in my early 20s from 14/15 until just recently (four months from my 31st birthday).

[pacalo]

82. One of the few times in my life that I've had my hair cut short -- Meg Ryan style,

a worker in Foodies asked me if I was a local newswoman. That made my year.

I was a tomboy growing up who liked climbing trees, playing marbles, & playing sports, but feminine at the same time.

[provis99]

83. I keep getting mistaken for George Clooney.

you may all swoon at my feet, now.

[applegrove]

84. LOL!

[rurallib]

85. two or three things due to stereotyping

1) In my younger days I was a pretty good athlete but because of my weight and size was usually assumed to be slow and awkward. One of the better racketball players in our area.

2) Worked in a factory and as such was assumed to be by management 'factory worker' mentality. The last 15 years of my working life I helped run the data center and would travel to company conferences frequently. I was almost always the only non-management there and many of the management types would make assumptions once they found out I wasn't management.

[madmom]

86. A mistake, my in laws don't like me and never have. They think a women's place is

in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant. Needless to say we clash on almost every subject. They told their son, my hubby, that marrying me was a mistake and it wouldn't work. We will be celebrating our 40th anniversary next month.

[sinkingfeeling]

87. While living in south Florida in the late '70s, people thought I was Cuban.

I had to learn how to say, "I don't speak Spanish" in Spanish because of it.

[Rambis]

88. Had two 15 yo kids following me around at the grateful dead

they thought I was Lars from Metallica? Of course the more I denied it the crazier it got. They were walking behind me alerting people to the fact "Lars" was walking around. Weird thing is not five minutes later I saw Bob Dylan standing by a VW bus talking to Bill Graham so at least there were two famous people there.

[KamaAina]

89. Jewish

Once I came into the office from a meeting across town. My colleagues were merrily putting up the office Christmas decorations. Then the moment they saw me, they all stopped, as though I'd said, "My broker is E.F. Hutton, and E.F. Hutton says...".

One of them turned around and asked me, "Is this offensive to you?"



I am a lapsed UU (!) of Austrian and Irish Catholic, and Scottish Protestant, descent. It's just that I lived in NYC for many years, have a vaguely Jewish-sounding surname, and they hyper-intellectual, cynical attitude to back it up.

[Myrina]

90. I was supposed to be a genius.

Other peoples' opinions, my test scores and my grades supported that theory.
Unfortunately, my dysfunctional parents and my own lack of self-esteem undermined it at every turn.

[KamaAina]

91. Gay

Back in the days before voicemail, Mom went to a party in NYC and left me with the cats back in Conn. So the phone rings and I answer it. This ensues:

"Is Lucius there?"

"No, there is no Lucius here."

(pause)

"Are you gay?"

'WHAT?!"

"You sound gay."

"What do you mean, I 'sound gay'??!!"

(click)

[Boudica the Lyoness]

92. Someone younger.

It has happened often over the years. When I was 54, I spent the day with my son who was 33 at the time and his toddler daughter. People thought I was my granddaughter’s mum. My son and I had a chuckle until he realized they must also think I was his wife. During that same visit, my son took me to his favorite club and while most people were just walking in, I was singled out to have my ID checked.

When I was 27 or 28, this handsome young lad was chatting me up in a hardware store where he was working. He was asking me where I was going to school, was I in the US with my parents or was I an exchange student...stuff like that. It turned out he was a high school student. He asked me if I wanted to go with him to this car wash that his fellow students were doing to raise funds. I didn't embarrass him by letting him know my age and that I had a 7 year old.

I had to show my ID to buy a lottery ticket when I was in my 30’s because the bloke would not believe I was over 18. When I was 30 I had to show ID to get into a club, but the funny thing was one of the fellows we were with said to me, “When you get to my age you’ll consider that a complement”. It turned out he was younger than I was.

A few months ago, a doctor I was seeing for the first time said to me, “When you get to my age…” then he looked down at my chart and said, “Oh, you’re 8 years older than I am”.

It must be my messy longish curly hair, because I do not think I look younger than I am. No Way.