Vulpes, do you appear male? It's a thing mostly done to women. Men are generally allowed to look serious without anybody commenting on it.
Apparently I'm ambiguous. I've been addressed at various times as anything from "sir" to "little girl"... the latter being particularly offensive, because (a) I was in my late 20s, clearly not "little" anything, and (b) the person saying was an older male who was being incredibly condescending, assuming that anyone looking at stereo equipment who appeared female couldn't
possibly know what they're looking for. But he didn't ask me to smile, and I certainly wasn't smiling when I gave him a pretty techincal answer to his "How can I help you, little girl?" (In retrospect, my answer should have suggested an anatomical impossibility involving him and the stereo equipment, but I was raised to be polite and ignore it when people are arseholes.)
I was also very happy to wear a mask all winter because it helps keep your face a bit warmer than it would be otherwise! It's kind of like wearing a scarf covering your face, but less uncomfortable. <snip>
I hope you're ready to speak rather loudly! Your voice does get somewhat muffled if you wear too thick a mask. <snip>
(I also have an older sister, I kind of miss the intense bitterness and hatred we held for each other in our childhood 
)
Yes to mask as scarf substitute! It can be really windy here, especially in parking lots, so it was nice to pop the mask on in the car and not have to deal with icy wind and blowing snow getting into the store.
I absolutely expect to wear out my voice trying to lecture through the mask. Another reason to do some classes remotely - reduce the strain on my vocal cords, because I'm pretty sure I don't project properly. I had a little vocal training, but it's really only enough to know that I'm projecting ineffectively, not enough to fix it.
I don't miss the fighting with my sister! She's six years my senior, so when we were little, she could beat me up, and did - although now, whenever I mention some dreadful thing she did to me, she says, "I would
never have done that!" Yeah, I don't think I'm misremembering the time you nearly dislocated my shoulder, that kind of thing sticks in the memory, you know? She moved out when there was still a considerable size difference between us. She was home visiting a few years later, and started in with her usual poking and pestering. I asked her to stop. She didn't. I had Had Enough, and swung around and punched her in the gut. Just then our mum walked in the room. My sister howled that I'd
punched her... and Mum said, "About time," and turned around and left us to sort it out between us. We've gotten along much better since then!
Many of them even view it as if it’s a positive thing to say. <snip>
This is what makes it so hard to correct that type of behaviour. Why are you annoyed? I just gave you a compliment! It was sincere! You have no business being offended!
My mother used to get enraged when people (often other women) would say, "You look so nice with makeup," on the odd occasion when she wore any. She would grit her teeth and say thanks, but would fume later, "So, do I look terrible the rest of the time?" I am really careful about complimenting people's appearance - male or female - because of this implied judgement of their appearance the rest of the time. I feel pretty safe with a haircut - after all, they presumably got it cut because they thought it was getting messy - but I think twice for other things!
Tarnagh, those are incredible stats! Thanks for the links, I'll definitely be digging a little deeper. It's obviously about more than just masks, but does vividly demonstrate how bad the pandemic would have been without the various measures taken.
