So, it was somebody's birthday at my work today and we had a cake. The person serving the cake was cutting large pieces and handing them out. I was in no rush to get a piece, but I was standing beside the server and I thought I would let her know that I preferred a small piece, so she wouldn't end up cutting too many big pieces. I said "I'd just like a sliver please." She said "ladies first!", turned her head away from me, and continued serving the women in the room. She didn't say it as a joke, she wasn't mad at me, she just simply had a plan to serve the women first. How is this acceptable? I'm just imagining a man cutting the cake, a woman saying she'd like a small piece, and the man saying "men first!"

I'm not trying to make this sound like the biggest injustice ever, really I didn't care to wait for the cake, it was just insulting and shocking. We actually have a phrase in our culture that says to put one group ahead of the other, and it just passes through without any hesitation. Imagine "Whites first!"