English1020classblog’s Weblog

So, I know I probably sound like I’m obsessed with my job, since I wrote about it for the “spaces” blog as well, but I promise it’s a perfect example for gender and stereotypes associated with gender.

As I’ve stated in the past, I work in the tools and paint department at Sears. Not exactly the traditional female job. I asked to work in that department when I first applied at Sears because I heard that the tool department made the most commission, due to the ever popular Craftsman tool brand. I wanted to go where I would make decent money. Instead, they put me in the fragrance department (even though there were 3 openings in the tool department). I hated fragrances. Women would come into the department trying every single perfume on, ultimately making me and the rest of the store gag. And let’s not forget the smelly guys who would throw extravagant amounts of cologne on to cover their B.O. Did I mention I HATED that department?

Moving on, I noticed that only women worked in departments like fragrances and fine jewelry. On the other hand, departments like tools and lawn & garden were ran by males. Hmm.

After a year in the fragrance department, I had enough. I made $7.34 an hour, received no raise, dealt with the most annoying people, and could not stand the smell of perfume anymore. It was time to see the boss and raise some hell.

I saw him a week after my one year anniversary at Sears, and asked about openings in the tool department. Oddly enough, he seemed to understand why I wanted to leave fragrances and offered me a position as a sales associate in tools. Heck yea I took it.

Three weeks later, I was an official tools associate. There was one other girl in the department who only worked about 6 hours a week and hardly ever showed up. The guys seemed edgy and weird around me, as if they suddenly couldn’t be guys anymore with me around. It got even worse when male customers came in looking for tools. One specific event I will never forget occurred during my second week on the job. A male customer looked lost, so I asked him if he needed any help.

“It’s nothing you can help me with,” he said.

I looked at him somewhat puzzled.

“Can I speak to someone else, please?” he asked.

I was beyond upset. I suddenly knew why women were not hired into that department too often. There was a huge part of me that wanted to go back to fragrances and deal with B.O. guy instead of this chauvinistic crap.

I decided to stick with it after I saw my first paycheck.

After the first few months, I got really close to the guys in the department. They realized that I am by no means offended by guy-related stuff like burping, farting, and sexual jokes. I don’t tell them their sexist or judge them in any way. In fact, I sometimes beat them at their own game when it comes to having a trucker mouth. They find it hilarious. They also enjoy the fact that I dress girly and do my hair, yet at the same time, have a guy-like personality. I will always prefer video games and playing guitar and skateboarding over painting my nails or shopping. It’s just the way I am, and once they realized that, the whole “girls can’t do what guys do” stereotype vanished.

As far as customers go, I have learned to change their minds about me in humorous ways as well. For instance, I had a customer ask me about garage door openers, and right before I could explain the difference between chain drive and belt drive, he said “Can you go get your male friend over there to help me?” and pointed at my co-worker, Matt. I said, “Sure, one second.” I walked up to Matt and asked him to do me a huge favor.

“Matt, that guy over there is being a jerk and wants help from a man instead of me. Can you go help him with the best gay accent you’ve got, and occasionally stroke his arm and such?”

Matt was mosre than happy to help. He went over to the jerk and did the greatest gay accent I have ever heard. As expected, the customer was ultra uncomfortable and decided to come over and have me ring up his purchase. In your face, asshole.

The moral of the story is, I first entered the department for money-related reasons, yet ended up staying to prove a point and defeat stereotypes. Now, I have regulars that come in to see me for all their tool-related needs. The guys that work with me in the department invite me to the bar after work and appreciate that I can be girly and cool with their masculine jokes at the same time. My boss has hired 2 more girls into the department since I’ve been there, so there are 4 of us now. What I’ve learned is that we can’t be afraid to step into unknown territory and fight to be treated equally.

-Tiffany Kaiser