Day 195: She-Man

Morning run.  Ahead of me, a mother and her small son who's making painfully slow progress on a scooter.  As I near, the woman guides him to one side to let me pass.

'Move over, darling - let the lady through.'  As I run past I thank her and she immediately corrects herself, sounding flustered.  'Oh... Err - gentleman'. 

Yes.  She thought I was female.  Then I spoke and she realised her mistake. 

I should make it clear that I am in fact female.  I possess all the usual physical attributes (reasonably ample).  Plus longish hair.  Admittedly I am tall - 5'10" (so not freakish) and I do have a low voice, exacerbated today by a minor cold.  So I guess if you weren't paying close attention...

I've been mistaken for a man before.  Normally by the very elderly and short of sight, who presume tall-in-jeans means man.  But I've never had someone correct themselves before.  Never had someone embarrassed that they've mis-identified a man as a woman. 

Which is worse?  To be a man, mistaken for a woman?  Or to be a woman, mistaken for a woman, and then correctly identified as a man?

I snigger intermittently all the way home.  It would appear that I don't take my gender reassignment very seriously.