65 People Shared Their Stories Of Getting Wrongfully Assumed To Be Dumb

"My best friend and I were hanging out and wanted to watch a DVD on her family's XBox. We got power but no video or audio, I looked behind the TV and found the cat chewing on the AUX cable (he was noted for doing this.) I reached behind the TV and blindly plugged everything back in from what I could see. Still nothing. Her brother comes home and she asks for his help. I explain I had plugged it all back in after the cat pulled them out but still nothing. He tells me (with great authority) that I shouldn’t have bothered because as a girl I would never understand how the complexities of a game console worked. It was called an Xbox because only men have the X chromosome. It’s been 20 years and I still remember the smug look on his face because only men have X chromosomes. You’re and idiot and a chode Matt. An idiot and a chode."

"Was working part-time as a cashier while doing a Master's in Computer Science to pay for the groceries. Had a rude lady with her two kids get mad at me for some "not on sale item" and explain to her kids why they needed to do good in school so as not to end up like me. One of my professors was behind her in line, wanting to ask how my unpaid Machine Learning internship was going..."

"I was arguing with someone over the delisting of wolves. It eventually lead to the dude accusing me of blowing smoke out of my ass. Said I needed to educate myself. So I sarcastically said, “What exactly do I need to educate myself on?” While uploading peer-reviewed studies and official government data that backed up everything I had said. I then commenced to follow up with “I’m studying wildlife biology and own a wildlife rescue. I specialize in wolves and coyotes”... I wasn’t really accused of blowing smoke out of my a*s after that. In fact, the entire tone shifted, I guess they didn’t want to admit that they looked like a tool."

"My sister-in-law used to make fun of my English all the time, whenever I mispronounced something she would start laughing and telling everyone "she's so cute, she can't pronounce this or that" I always considered her just a mean girl trying to keep the attention to herself but the English thing really bothered me. One day we were drinking and she started laughing at something I said, I lost it. I told her I speak 3 languages while she can barely speak English. We kept arguing until I said fine let's prove it. We took a mock-up English test online and I got a perfect score! She got 8/12. That was the last day she laughed at me. I just like to share this story to remind people to be kind and patient with others, speaking English doesn't mean you're smarter than everyone else.

Some background for the story, I'm originally from Colombia but now I live in Canada, I speak Spanish English, and French. To everyone that said I tried learning a second language but it's too hard, try again! It's worth it, and yes it will take years and effort but it will open your eyes to a whole new world."

"I used to be really into Warhammer. At some point, I went into the store to get something and some young guys were painting models. I walked over to see their work and they kind of sneered at me, a woman, in a male-dominated hobby. When I wanted to lift a model one said: don't, you'll break it if you don't know how to hold it properly. After that, the owner of the store walked in, greeted me as an old friend and we got into a conversation about how the new paints hold up to the old ones. You should have seen their faces."

Pale-Yam8117 said:
"Yes. As a single parent that has pink hair and facial piercings, I’m often treated either like trash or like an idiot. I’m neither. I actually have several degrees and graduated summa cum laude."

AllyBeth replied:
"Hello from a fellow pink-haired pierced girl! I have a degree in childhood education and taught 4K for two years!"

"I was explaining how Dyson fans work to a customer before. When I got to the party where the technology compressed air in smaller and tighter areas of the fan allowing it to blow cooler air, he yelled at me and called me an idiot and how he was an engineer and that’s not how it works. I simply asked him to blow air with a wide mouth and again with tight lips and asked him which one was cooler to the feel. He got upset and walked away."

"Was asked by my brother and girlfriend which planet is first starting from the Sun. Was then belittled for twenty minutes after answering Mercury because they were adamant it was Venus. I was just disappointed because we are in our twenties."

"Many times. My favorite though was when my neighbor where I live now went into great detail about the Pendleton Round-up when we were talking about going to a local rodeo. How big the arena is, and how famous it is when it first started. He told me about all the events and how they work as if I had never been to any rodeo. Then he ask me where I grew up. Pendleton, Oregon."

Pitiful_Pride8813 said:
"When I was studying for my horticultural certificate, there were some males in my class that thought I was nothing but an airhead. I studied hard and flogged their sorry butts in exams and assignments and they realized very quickly that my looks are very deceiving. Funny thing is, the ringleader in all of this never finished his certification whilst I passed with flying colors."

Varth919 replied:
"Went to school for woodworking. On the first day, the teacher let us know that sexism is not gonna be tolerated, especially since we had a woman in our class. Didn’t need that lecture though since she topped the class on day 1. Very skilled."

"Many times. I do business through my social media for fun and I work doing makeup. Some people just want to pretend they're intellectually from 'higher spheres' than me and they start bullsh*ting on things they have no idea actually. They can't imagine I do all this just for fun, that I was a scientific researcher until I decided to stop it, and that I have a Ph.D."

jooby-the-nooby said:
"Our school's schedule got revamped which meant that one of our classes that was two periods long was cut in half to accommodate for all the changes. When I brought this up to the teacher I was co-teaching with, she called me an idiot and told everyone sitting in our table group that I wasn't very good at math and everyone laughed. A few minutes later, the principal cleared up the new schedule, only for her to realize that she was wrong in the first place. Felt so good to see the look on her face when she realized she was the dumba*s and not me."

McPoyle_milk replied:
"What kind of teacher calls someone an idiot and continues to make fun of that person? What a horrible person. Glad she had a reality check."

"The day after graduating from high school, my brother, who had just learned to drive a stick (manual transmission), took me to go look at cars. The very first one he drove, an old Ford Explorer, wouldn't shift into fifth gear, at which point I said to him, "I don't think you should buy this one, something's seriously wrong with it." He told me to shut up, asked me what I knew about cars, and immediately bought them. A week later, the transmission dropped. Me, the day the transmission dropped: "What do I know about cars? Not much, but obviously, more than you!" It's been almost twenty years, and whenever he gets too full of himself, I remind him of that. (Note: I still know almost nothing about cars, except they go "vroom" and get me places. I've never had a major repair like a bad transmission, in a little over fifteen years of driving and owning cars.)"

"Some guys came through my line a few weeks ago at the store and I asked for their IDs for the beer. One guy showed him I'd but for the rest of the transaction tried to argue with me that I only need to see the I'd of the buyer (it's any viable person I think may have some, in my state) and after they paid and left, the guy next in line informs me that he was the regional guy who checked and made sure stores followed alcohol laws and that I was completely correct on what I said."

"I was in my 3rd year of a marketing degree. At our Uni, it was mostly client work and the “prof” was a mentor. The usual prof that taught this program was on sabbatical, so this other monster of a prof took on the course. About 36 hours before the client presentation, this prof yelled at us in her office and told us we were going to embarrass the school. We won the competition."

"Oh working in retail has those moments constantly. People don’t read the signs right and one guy didn’t get the right chips for the deal and was getting mad at me and told me to come and he’ll show me the sign. I had already dealt with people not reading the fine print on that deal so I told him “I’m not going to look at anything, you can go look for yourself and read it then come back with the right product”. He came back without an attitude because he knew he was wrong and from that point on I always had my guard up when I saw him come in and I was ready for a fight each time."

"While still enlisted in the army, I worked in the maintenance field. Basically, if it had moving parts I knew a little bit about it. Now every year my unit goes on Annual Training. And this particular year, we got six brand-new generators. Now the section they belonged to was headed by a sergeant who had over 15 years of service and knew his job inside and out, backward and forwards. And then decided that I didn't know how to do my job. In his wisdom, he decided that the fuel cans for his new generators would be set next to said machines. All was well and good until I told him they needed to be placed on a secondary containment to prevent fuel from spilling on the ground, cuz we can get in huge trouble for that. He disregarded what I said with some idiotic excuse, don't rightly remember what, and went on his way. So naturally, I reported the violation of orders to my superior. Within five minutes there was an a*s chewing and the fuel cans were put on a secondary containment."

"I’m a liquor broker with professional beverage certifications who also happens to bartend a couple of nights a week at an upscale hotel bar and I’ve had many a patron try and tell me (incorrectly, often) the differences between different whiskeys, how they’re made, etc etc. I just smile behind my mask and nod and carry on."

"We were on state benefits as my kiddo is terminally ill and needs care 24/7, so I am unable to work. I had to call and speak with his benefit caseworker who asked if I wanted an opportunity to go to college and have it paid for. I asked if they'd pay for my doctorate, as I already have 2 Masters' Degrees. They would not."

"I worked with someone for three years, a colleague who did similar work and was in my hiring interview, asking if I had ever considered doing a master's degree in our field; a coworker overheard and told them I already have a master's degree, that’s why they hired me."