I am touched and yet at the same annoyed with people who are so scared of hurting my feelings or of being labelled politically incorrect if they were to describe me as “the lady with the scarf.” It’s happened so often at work when a nurse will ask a client which vet he/she would prefer to see or which vet did you see last and the poor dears will skirt around the scarf like it doesn’t exist when really it is the most OBVIOUS thing about me.
It’s OK with me to describe me as the dark/olive skinned/scarf lady/gorgeous/Muslim/beautiful one. Because I am.
A colleague is Indian and we’ve had a bit of whinge about it. He usually gets called “the large vet.” He isn’t the vet who immediately comes to mind when someone uses that word. He isn’t extraordinarily tall. He isn’t even fat! “JUST CALL ME THE BROWN MAN!” he laments.
We don’t mind.
Really. Go on – it will save everyone a lot of unnecessary time guessing and we aren’t offended. We’ve been called a whole lot worse, you know.
