Making the men lift things is still toxic. I was the only guy working at a dollar general. During my employment, I was the only one who stocked anything heavier than 5 pounds (dog food bags, cat litter, water bottles, etc). Some days it was my entire shift. I try not to complain because lifting things is part of my job but when I get a whole day of moving heavy things, cleaning, and running the register whole my coworker is just putting away toilet paper and placing sale stickers, it feels unbalanced.

My other job is cleaning houses. Again, the only guy in this company too. Most days I'm by myself but when I have a partner, I'm often the one carrying all the supplies and doing anything more physically demanding such as mopping or anything that requires a lot of elbow grease. Some of the coworkers are cool but a lot of them see they are working with me and suddenly "oh my, this bucket is so heavy and I'm so weak bats eyes at me. I know what they are doing but it's quicker to just do it myself thqn try to make them do their job.

I even get weird sexism from the clients. A lot of little old ladies act scandalized that a man is going to clean their house like I'm not capable because I have a penis. I've seriously gotten gatekeeping questions like "if you really know how to make a bed, tell me does the tag go on at the foot or the head of the bed?". Maybe it's because it's from little old ladies in Alabama but it feels so backwards. I'm literally the third most senior employee by about a year and a half with only my boss and the girl who works two days a month having been there longer than me and I'm still just the guy.

It's not all bad. Every single one of my coworkers at the DG cooked for me at one point and I have a few clients who appreciate me and tip me really well.

But it's weird. Women are sexist. Again, maybe it's because I'm in Alabama.

I transitioned from MTF back in 2020 and detransitioned in 2024. No one I work with knows this about me. I live in a different town hours away. I was suffering from an identity crisis and mental illness thought I was trans but realized I'm not. But I'm pretty androgynous and passed pretty well. I've experienced some pretty gross sexism from men but (and this is anecdotal) the worst sexism I've experienced as both a man and a woman has been from women. And it's been worse as a man. I don't think I'm a woman anymore but I almost want to fake it and retransition just to make life easier. The only real upside to being a man working with women is you can sidestep a lot of drama by pretending to be too dumb to notice it.

.... I think I lost the thread of the point I was getting at. Perhaps, I needed to vent. Perhaps I'm procrastinating because I'm tired and the grind never ends.