I am curvy. Even at my lowest healthy weight I was a size 5/6 AS A YOUNG TEEN.
Now, I'm overweight, and I am still curvy. I have nice boobs and a big butt. I am soft with strong muscles underneath. My kids love cuddling me, and so does the boyfriend. I love my body, really. Losing weight is more about health than aesthetics.
So anyway, I work in a factory and make 45 to 130lb motors. I am able to lift motors up to 60lbs by myself (that's our "safety limit"), and the same parts all the guys I work with have to lift. I don't slack off and I pull my own weight. I work with all guys except for 3 women. 2 of the 3 women don't like me because they totally slack off and talk all day, and I don't tolerate it. I will flat out tell them to get back to work if they get behind. The other girl is pretty cool, but is very new and still in training, so I don't see her a lot.
Today, I was working on a motor and stepped back from the assembly line and bumped into our shift leader. I said, "Whoops! Watch it!" and he yelled back, "Maybe if your *** wasn't so damn big I wouldn't have to!" Now, this had a kind of dual effect on me. A, it made me laugh. B, It also pissed me off and I immediately fired off a not so nice comment back, about his butt being 5X's bigger than mine. He's overweight, and I immediately felt bad about saying it. A lot of the time, everything is just "shop talk." No one is actually serious about anything they say, and the guys I work with know I am quite confident with my body. The cherry on top though, was when he came back by and said "I only said it because everyone else was thinking it. They just didn't say it." UGH!!! That really ticked me off. Why? I don't know. I don't hate my body at all, so why does it bug me?? Especially knowing he said it to ONLY get a rise out of me!
I'm stunned in two ways, first that some guy would be that rude for no reason, and secondly, as an attorney, I'm always stunned that people don't realize they, and their company, can get sued for remarks like that. There may be a lot of give and take on the line, but you never know what comment is going to piss somebody off enough to lodge a complaint.
I think it bugs you because it's just plain rude and unnecessary and he's acting like a six year old.
[QUOTE=Robin41;4475072]I'm stunned in two ways, first that some guy would be that rude for no reason, and secondly, as an attorney, I'm always stunned that people don't realize they, and their company, can get sued for remarks like that. QUOTE]
im also a butt girl. even at my thinnest/underweight point in high school i had a bubble butt. lemme tell you something: guys LOVE it!
we were talking about this one time recently and another girl polled every guy in the room on whether boobs or butt was more important and every single one said if it came down to it and there could only be one, they want the booty.
i was always really insecure about my bubble butt. the older i get the more i hear about how great it looks. i like it now.
Last edited by juliastl27; 09-21-2012 at 12:06 AM.
I would talk to him again and tell him that his words were hurtful and that you want him to stop or you will need to talk to his supervisor. Talk to the source first, then go up the chain of command if there isn't any resolution to the problem.
Second, how rude of him! I can relate...My MIL has made rude comments in the past about how big my butt is and I would have loved to have the courage to stand up to her when she did that. I didn't, out of respect for my husband, and because I didn't want to be mean. I realize now that I'm older that while I have a large rear, it's my hips that are actually really wide rather than my butt being really big. ;-) Her words hurt me for many years. I wish I hadn't let them- don't let this man's words hurt you!
I'm stunned in two ways, first that some guy would be that rude for no reason, and secondly, as an attorney, I'm always stunned that people don't realize they, and their company, can get sued for remarks like that. There may be a lot of give and take on the line, but you never know what comment is going to piss somebody off enough to lodge a complaint.
I think it bugs you because it's just plain rude and unnecessary and he's acting like a six year old.
I'm stunned in two ways, first that some guy would be that rude for no reason, and secondly, as an attorney, I'm always stunned that people don't realize they, and their company, can get sued for remarks like that. There may be a lot of give and take on the line, but you never know what comment is going to piss somebody off enough to lodge a complaint.
I think it bugs you because it's just plain rude and unnecessary and he's acting like a six year old.
I agree with the second reason for you being stunned. A shift leader should be more cognizant of the harassment issue. But as far as the rudeness of the comments, from the way that Pint Sized described the work environment, it seems like the comment was meant to be playful, not hurtful. She said that her first reaction was to laugh. I don't think that is the reaction a person has when they are "hurt" by a comment.
In the past I have played practical jokes on my friends and co-workers or said things to them that I thought was benign, but which really bothered them. I felt terrible when they told me that it bothered them and I learned a little lesson from those experiences on how to be sensitive to other peoples sensitivities. Pint Sized. You said you felt bad when you said that your co-worker's butt was much bigger than yours. Did he know that your retort to him came about because you were upset? Or does he think you were just giving him a zing right back at him -- all in good-natured fun? I wouldn't be surprised if he would feel bad if you told him that you were genuinely upset with his comments. If you don't tell him, he might think that you were just playing around.
im also a butt girl. even at my thinnest/underweight point in high school i had a bubble butt. lemme tell you something: guys LOVE it!
we were talking about this one time recently and another girl polled every guy in the room on whether boobs or butt was more important and every single one said if it came down to it and there could only be one, they want the booty.
i was always really insecure about my bubble butt. the older i get the more i hear about how great it looks. i like it now.
I'm with you - it's nice to have a little extra uplift back there as you get older! Plus it helps keep you warm while on bleachers at the soccer games
I'm going to take the other side in this- you bumped into him, and then told him to watch it. His comment was out of line, but odds are he was reacting to you. I suspect if you'd simply said "excuse me" he wouldn't have said anything rude. Just my thoughts. He was still out of line, but in a way it sounds like you were sort of rude yourself.
Yeah my butt is big, so what???
Bottom line - you have a good bottom line 
