I lift weights for fun!

As a brown woman involved in business discussions with mostly men, there's no dearth to the stereotypes, labels and dismissal I have faced.

It used to scare me, make me angry - now I just laugh. Humour helps me call them out in a way that the pitch can still continue.

Even outside of work, some men will use any stereotype or label to get an 'out' from a situation where they feel their ego is at stake, however slightly.

Humour helps land the bigger point!

A couple years back, I was in the coach section of a flight. Where, unlike business class, the struggle for the overhead bin space is real.

The gentleman, who comes in after me, has a couple big bags and starts stuffing them randomly into an already crowded space. Huffing, puffing and losing his cool. Not only was he doing a bad job, he was also likely to shut it in a way that anyone who dared open it after, would get their head hit with falling luggage.

It could easily be handled better, so I offered to help. He was surprised, but moved away.

I got up on the side of the seat, actually looked into the space and moved things around to then lift and fit his bags. And they did.

As I took my seat, he thanked me grudgingly, looked me up and down and said ‘You did that well. You used to work as an air hostess?'

I wanted to tell him, 'No, you injured male ego, don't explain away my action with 'because this has been her job'. I have brains and I just used them - is all’.

But I just said 'No Sir, I have never been a stewardess. But I lift weights for fun. Like 80 kilo deadlifts. That helps.'