When Kamala Harris was sworn in as the Vice-President of the United States, it was a historic moment.
As she became the first woman to hold the title, causing a major crack in the glass ceiling which still, amazingly, has yet to be broken.
Unfortunately, there are still a distressing number of people who carry antiquated opinions when it comes to gender roles.
Feeling that only a man could possibly be in charge of certain things or that women aren't cut out for certain roles. Preposterous.
Thankfully, this can sometimes lead to someone's foot being deliciously shoved right into their mouth after they embarrass themselves by assuming their husband, or male partners or assistants, are the ones in charge.
When the women they are speaking to are, to use another antiquated term, "the ones wearing the pants" in these situations.
Redditor teacherspet5859438e was eager to hear from women who found themselves in these frustrating, but in the end empowering, situations, leading them to ask:
"Woman of reddit, what is your 'I am the client not my husband stop ignoring me' story?"
Make Your Own Tea!
"My scenario doesn’t quite fit the bill but I’m a female business owner with a male business partner."
"I’ve had a few customers born in the dark ages and reps that ask to 'speak to my boss'."
"But the worst was a guy who snapped his fingers and told me to 'put the kettle on girly'."
"Needless to say he didn’t get his cuppa and he certainly didn’t get the discount he asked for."- Blondeinsideandout
"You Work On Commission, Right? Big Mistake. Huge!"
"So a while back my wife and I were hitting up local dealerships trying to find a replacement car for her 2006 Nissan subcompact."
"The first thing I would tell each salesman was that we were shopping around for a daily for her to drive."
"Honda dealership was stereotypical car salesman."
"'We can't even let her take a test drive unless she shows intent to buy'."
"Ford dealership ignored her completely and tried to sell me a mustang."
"Toyota was like, 'oh you must want to look at our (insert soccer mom vehicle here)'."
"But when we got to Mazda, I told the sales guy the same thing, that we were looking for her next car, and he immediately nodded, turned to her and asked 'what do you look for in a car?'"
"And then he just listened to her."
"He didn't ask me anything for the rest of the time we were there, focused entirely on her and answering her questions. Never rushed her or pushed her towards a different model."
"So yeah we'll probably be getting her a soul red Mazda3 cuz of that guy."- Raeshkae
Honda Meme GIFGiphyTo Assume Makes And A** Out Of "U" And Me...
"We wanted a fence around our house."
"I have always worked from home, and my husband has always worked in a field where he cannot take time to meet with contractors, etc."
"He and I agree on terms up front and then I make decisions from there."
"It doesn’t matter in life, but for this story it does."
"I make more than my husband."
"We had already agreed on this company based on various factors."
"A man came over to give an estimate during a work day, which ended up being less than we expected to pay."
"I was ready to sign the papers and he said 'I’d rather talk to your husband about the numbers and get his signature since he will be the one paying for it'."
"I asked him to leave my property and never come back."- Diligent-Reaction-23
I'm Right Here!
"Husband and I took my daughter to urgent care for stitches."
"Husband is holding the kid, and I check her in at the front desk iPad."
"Front desk man looks to my husband and asks for the insurance card."
"We’re on my insurance so I hand him the card."
"Next he tells my husband the copay, looking at him, behind me, when I’m the one standing at the damn desk."
"I pull out my card with my name on it, and pay."
"A**hole."- Fire-Kissed
ron swanson spinning GIFGiphyThis Borders On Medical Negligence
"When I was a baby for some reason I wouldn't 'latch on' when my mother breast fed me, so I wasn't eating well."
"The doctor completely ignored my mom and only talked to my dad because she was 'too hysterical'.'
'He was on the verge of finding out what that looked like."- TheHitListz
How To Lose A Tip In Three Easy Steps...
"Took my boyfriend to a very expensive birthday dinner in DC and made sure he got the best wine that night."
"The total came to about $400 just for the two of us."
"I made the initial reservation so our notes stated that I would be treating."
"Having come from working at a high end restaurant, I’m familiar with proper service steps."
"The first strike was when I ordered the wine for us and the server gave the bottle to my boyfriend to approve and taste without giving me the option."
"Second strike was although I clearly said I was treating, they placed the check in front of my boyfriend, on his birthday."
"Final straw was the manager coming over to introduce himself to my boyfriend."
"Handshake, banter, the works, without acknowledging me."
"Happened a second time at the end of the meal."
"Two manager visits."
"And I was the one trying to provide the experience and bankroll the night."
"They definitely heard about it."- kuriosramblings
GiphyThere's nothing wrong with men hoping to be chivalrous, and treat their lady to the nicer things in life.
However, chivalry is merely the characteristics of what it takes to be a knight or gentleman, including courage, honor and courtesy.
With that in mind, perhaps the most chivalrous thing any man can do, is treat a woman as their equal.
Or, when appropriate, their superior.
Companies and products rebrand for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they want to revitalize a dying brand.
Or stay fresh and modern.
Other times they're trying to put a negative public image in their rear view mirror.
And sometimes, someone somewhere in a company has low impulse control.
Anyway...
Reddit user PulakHasan asked:
"What's the Weirdest Rebranding of all time?"
Weight Watchers
"Weight Watchers abbreviated their name down to 'WW' and in doing so, increased the syllables needed to pronounce their new company name."
~ hambone10
"You burn more calories uttering the extra syllables."
~ jungl3j1m
waitr
"Waitr was an extremely successful delivery service here. They had full time employees and you could get food delivered in 30-45 minutes."
"Then, they made everybody an independent contractor and started calling themselves ASAP."
"'As slow as possible' caught on and they lost the majority market share within a month."
~ bravesgeek
GiphyHBO
"I still don’t understand HBO dropping probably the most prestigious name in cable tv/streaming."
~ stoneman9284
"Right?! Also it literally means Home Box Office - that’s the best name for a streaming service????"
~ oreos_in_milk
Nordic Choice Hotels
"Nordic Choice Hotels rebranded to 'Strawberry'."
"They have to mention their old name all the time, because Strawberry could be absolutely anything."
"If only it were 'Strawberry Hotels' but it's not. It's just Strawberry."
"They removed the part that explains what kind of business it is."
"Madness."
~ WoodSheepClayWheat
GiphyUSWest
"USWest-->Qwest-->CenturyLink-->Lumen I don’t care what your name is."
"Can I have more than 10mbps DSL at my address?"
~ Trickycoolj
"In Europe, and it's now Level3--> Centurylink--> Lumen--> Colt."
"I'm sure they rename in the hope people forget the incompetence."
~ ConsciousValence
"My mom has worked for them since 1977 when they were Northwestern Bell."
"She's been through a billion name changes."
~ CorporalBB
Circuit City IQ Crew
"Circuit City rebranding their PC technician division from IQ Crew (which predated Geek Squad, by the way) to..."
"Firedog."
"I worked at a Circuit City from 2005-2008 and we all thought it was a prank when we saw the announcement."
"'The intensity of fire with the loyalty of man's best friend'."
"I sh*t you not—that was the marketing."
~ Tiberius_Jim
GiphyBritish Petroleum
"When after a major oil spill, BP changed their branding to Beyond Petroleum for an ad campaign showing how they were investing in renewables."
"Logo change too."
~ RandomAmuserNew
"An oil spilled followed by a huge effort to cover it up, including dumping Corexit into the water to mix with the oil and make it sink."
"So it was no longer visible from aerial shots, but it did far, far more damage mixed with a dangerous chemical and sitting on the sea floor than slowly evaporating or being soaked up on the surface."
~ LurkerOrHydralisk
Amoco
"When BP purchased Amoco, they quickly rebranded all the stations to BP."
"Not sure if it is everywhere but Amoco had a lot of brand recognition in the Midwest and a lot of people just didn’t like BP."
"Eventually, they started rebranding some of their stations back to Amoco to cash in on nostalgia."
"I always thought it was dumb but never realized that so many people hated it until after I worked for BP (very briefly) and was told the story of how much pushback they got."
~ anitabelle
British Petroleum (BP Oil)/Paul Sableman
Overstock.com
"Overstock.com I think qualifies for weird rebrand."
"Bed Bath and Beyond went out of business and was bought out by Overstock and then Overstock just rebranded everything to Bed Bath and Beyond."
"If you go to overstock.com it’s just BBB."
~ WhatsABuckland
Snoop Dogg
"When Snoop Dogg (temporarily) changed his name to Snoop Lion to make a reggae album."
~ RomanOnARiver
"Snoop’s original name on Death Row was 'Snoop Doggy Dogg'. When he left Death Row and went to No Limit, he had to alter his name (which might have been his original name) to 'Snoop Dogg'."
~ GotMoFans
"Snoop’s mother used to call him Snoopy as a nickname which is the origin."
~ OpanaMan
"The Charles Schulz people would have had a field day."
~ GotMoFans
GiphyBooks-A-Million
"Books-A-Million to 'BAM'."
"I was in a parking lot with one and had no idea it was a bookstore, as I was a bit too far out to see more than 'BAM' from where I was parked."
~ lynnyfox
KIA
"Everytime I see the new KIA logo I assume its a NIN [Nine Inch Nails] fan."
~ vinyalwhl
"I thought it was KN for an embarrassingly long time."
~ VulfSki
"KIA changed their logo on their cars and Google showed an uptick in the searches for 'K N cars' because people liked the look of them but didn’t realise it was a KIA."
~ User_Deleted_Content
Mark Chan on Unsplash
Royal Mail
"Royal Mail deciding Consignia was the way to go forwards."
~ PonITdude
"They wanted to go international but they lost so much money that year they had to stay national and reversed the name back."
~ ShinyHead0
"Twitter to X."
~ sandiercy
"And then everyone still refers to it as Twitter."
~ Safety_Drance
"'A user on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted…'.”
~ tommyk1210
"Rather like to see 'A user on Twitter, erroneously known as X, posted...'."
~ SagittaryX
"'A user on twitter, largely unknown as X, posted...'."
~ Pinksters
"A few days ago, I saw an article that said 'Twitter, which Elon Musk incorrectly thinks is called X for some reason...'."
"That was pretty funny."
~ temalyen
GiphyCity Landmarks
"In Chicago we still call it the Sears Tower [renamed Willis Tower in 2009]."
~ baccus83
"And in Pittsburgh, it’s still Heinz Field [renamed Acrisure Stadium in 2022]."
~ NoVaBurgher
"And in Toronto, it’s still the Skydome [renamed Rogers Centre in 2005]."
~ nonanarchist
"And in New York when you take 287 across the Hudson it's still the Tappan Zee Bridge [renamed Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in 2017]. "
~ keytarin
"A lot of LA people still call it Staples Center [renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021]."
~ New_Simple_4531
"In Denver we will always say Mile High Stadium [renamed Empower Field at Mile High in 2019]."
~ SheBrokeHerCoccyx
Some rebrandings make perfect sense to the public.
Others are utterly baffling.
What would you add to this list?
Reddit user b-secret asked:
"What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever Googled?"
How Much?
"what's the alcohol percentage in 70% rubbing alcohol?"
~ LightsJusticeZ
"55% alcohol, 15% rubbing"
~ FishOfFishyness
Who?
"I Googled my work because I couldn’t remember my boss’ name after working there for 8 months."
"I just blanked and couldn’t think of it."
~ HCxTC
Spellcheck
"I Google how to spell restaurant all the time."
~ ParkOk6450
"I'm like that but with Febuary."
"EDIT: February"
~ NeoNero_x
"I go into incognito mode to check spellings of words I should know how to spell."
~ LordCaptain
GiphyUm, No.
"I was trying to find the name of those signs where a word is written down the side and each letter is used for a descriptive word."
"Confusing I know."
"So here’s an example: False Evidence Appearing Real"
"I know it has to have a name. So I googled 'Sign where every word starts with a letter' and Goggle responded with 'Did you mean a sentence?'.”
~ Team_Lift
Looks Like...
"Googled green beans once, was super high and forgot what they looked like."
~ testies2345
"I did the same thing with beets."
~ Jjetsk1_blows
Gaby Yerden on Unsplash
That Movie, With the Guy and the Stuff...
"I'll forget the name of a movie and just type in random sh*t I think I remember. Usually it works."
"Like 'that movie where the kid sleeps and has weird dreams and flies on a bed'."
"Works like a charm."
~ fohsupreme
Did They Have Blue Feet?
"big boobies"
"I was only 10."
"I was surprised to find some."
~ PoopPower99
"I’m 39 and I Google this every day."
~ dekkact
"They're nice birds but are they really worth Googling everyday?"
~ redwolf1219
Blue-Footed Boobies
GiphyPredictive Text
"I used to search something like 'no clothes' or 'without clothes' or something like that when I was a kid."
"Then I learnt the word NAKED because of the TV show Naked and Afraid."
"Then searched it so many times that my autocorrect started to show that word first when I wanted to type something."
~ sniper8207
NSF...S?
"My favorite band growing up was 'The Barenaked Ladies'."
"When I was at school, I once Googled them and clicked on a link that said 'free shows!'."
~ BW_Bird
Good Description
"I forgot what a 'gondola' was called so I typed in 'Thing that carries you through the mountains in a basket'."
~ TheGreatJaceyGee
"I once forgot the word for 'door' so my brain reached for adjacent concepts, smashed them together and threw them out my mouth: 'house portal'."
~ Tail_Nom
GiphyIt Just Doesn't Translate
"I have to search a random word 'auf Englisch' or a random word 'auf Deutsch'."
"Every damn day."
"It took me a minute to realize that there was no way to translate Schadenfreude into English."
~ grammar_fixer_2
Ah, Memories...
"I found out that as long as you're logged into Google, all your searches are saved to your Google account (I'm not talking about browser history)."
"So I looked back, and the 1st thing I ever googled after getting a Google account was 'Can ducks fly'."
"I've no idea why I googled this. I know ducks can fly."
~ caca__milis
GiphyYou Ate What‽‽
"Once I was with some friends and I was telling them about how when I was a kid we only got to eat nuts as a special treat around Christmas."
"Then I mentioned how much I liked squirrel nuts and no one knew what they were. So I Googled 'squirrel nuts' with image search."
"Not at all what we ate at Christmas time."
"Finally found out what my family called 'squirrel nuts' were actually called hazelnuts."
~ 123fofisix
100% NSFW
"A few years ago my coworker and I were looking at the calendar at work. It had pictures of birds and we were trying to figure out what kind of bird was pictured for that month."
"I can’t remember what she thought it was, but I darned sure it was a Great Tit."
"We have a great relationship and have been working together for a long time but we tend to argue like an old married couple. So we went to Mr Google for the answer."
"Let me tell you that Googling Great Tit at work isn’t something I will ever do again."
"For the record, I was right. The bird was a Great Tit."
~ pi11bott
Great Tit holds an insect in its beak
A Perry on Unsplash
Hope some of these folks remembered to clear their browser and search histories.
So, what's your hilarious—or embarrassing—little Google secret search?