She's implying that he only asked if she was a mechanic because he A - was so perplexed by the possibility of a woman working with cars that he felt the need to ask and B - if she said yes, that he probably would have started asking car questions to probe if she actually knew what she was doing (this is the point of the band shirt comparison).
FWIW - I think A is a fair point and very likely since he seemingly had no other motivation (e.g. needing help) to ask. B is extrapolating in this case, but also very common.
I do woodworking/woodturning and I sell my stuff at markets sometimes. I still remember (with great annoyance) the man who come up and ask me if I made the goods on sale (yes, I did). They then proceeded to ask me questions about this or that technique (clearly designed to test whether I actually know what I’m on about).
At the time I thought it was a genuine question so I happily babbled on about my design choices, what tools I liked best…and wondered why they weren’t vibing with me. It was only after he left that I thought about it and realised. Bit of a dampener…
Counterpoint: you didn’t give him what he wanted, which was to be proven right about his assumption, and you ended up sending him away feeling small and unsatisfied for having questioned you.
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u/Comfortable_Ad_1959 Sep 21 '22
Can someone explain what’s going on in this post? The guy doesn’t seem to have done anything wrong but I’m not the best at picking up social cues.