I've been a teacher at this college for almost eight years and I'm in my fourties, but I still sometimes get confused for a student. Always by men.

So I walked into the teachers lounge last week, normally you can only get in by scanning your teacher pass, but the door was open for some reason, so I didn't get my pass out. There's one other teacher in the lounge and he immediately starts berating me as if I'm a tresspassing student. In the past I would laugh it off, explain I'm a teacher, or say something stupid like 'oh well, I'll take it as a compliment'. Uugh.

Instead I said nothing and just stared at him disapprovingly. I let his remarks just hang in the air. His demeanor changed from indignant to awkward to nervous. He weakly said 'you need a pass to get in here...' I kept staring at him. He was fidgeting in his seat now. I kept it up for another minute, then dryly stated 'this is the teacher's lounge, I am. a. teacher.' He mumbled something like 'how am I supposed to know'.

So I go make a coffee at the machine, and he comes up to me and starts explaining to me how to use the machine. I've been using that machine for eight years... So I stop what I'm doing, and resume staring at him disapprovingly. He's still explaining away, I stare, he starts stuttering, I stare, he starts sweating, visibly nervous, mumbles something and actually flees the room!

I'm still laughing. Never knew staring him down would be so effective. And I feel a LOT better about myself than in the past when I used to laugh it off or explain myself. I have nothing to prove, they need to get their eyes checked if they can't tell the difference between a 23 year old and a 43 year old, and they need their egos checked if they think it's acceptable behaviour to berate women they don't know like that, colleague or student. Somehow I doubt he would have acted like that with a man.