A little social anthropology for you now that I'm quite obviously pregnant.

[nanila]

Number of times I've boarded a packed Tube train in the past month: 14
Number of times I've been offered a seat: 8
Number of times I've been offered a seat by a female: 6
Number of times I've been offered a seat by a male: 2
Number of times I've been offered a seat by a male native English speaker: 0
Number of times I've been offered a priority seat intended for physically disabled/pregnant passengers: 0
Number of times someone has apologised for not noticing me earlier: 2
Number of times the apologetic person has been female: 2

Dear London, I do love you but you still don't do a great job of accommodating those who are less-than-fully-able-bodied. (Also, my feet are swollen by the end of the day, dammit. I have to walk a minimum of 5 km on my commute and I weigh 14 kg more than I normally do. And yes, I am wearing sensible shoes.)

Comments

[telegramsam]

Just give 'em the stink-eye until they budge. ;)

[nanila]

Heh, that would only work if most people on the Tube weren't either pretending to be asleep or assiduously avoiding eye contact behind a newspaper.

[ironed_orchid]

I growl in their general direction.

[foxfinial]

It's wonderful to know that not much has changed since my mum was pregnant with me, almost 26 years ago.

[nanila]

Naturally, today my statistics have taken a bit of a whack because not one, but two Englishmen offered me their seats this morning!

[foxfinial]

Ha! The joys of statistics. And yay for some decent behaviour!

[sfred]

A thing that frustrates me about this is that if I ask someone to let me have the priority seat (which I only ever do when I'm using my walking stick, although it would help prevent/reduce some symptoms of my disability at other times too), they always do let me sit - but I can only get together the confidence to ask less than half the time.
I think lots of able-bodied people think that less-able-bodied people will ask if they need to sit, so it's OK to wait to be asked rather than to offer. And maybe fear causing offence if they offer? On the flip side of that, I fear asking someone to stand in case it turns out they have an invisible disability too and they needed the seat more than me - so I think the onus should be on the person in the priority seat to offer.

In my experience, this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem in Yorkshire as in London. I don't know whether this is a cultural difference or whether it's because the signs on (e.g.) Sheffield buses say "please offer this seat to someone less able to stand" rather than "Priority seat for people who are disabled, pregnant or less able to stand" - the London sign doesn't specify whose responsibility it is to make sure the seat's allocated appropriately.

Also also - I think lots of people don't realise how disabling and/or uncomfortable pregnancy can be, which is why it's good that the signs have been changed to specifically mention pregnant people, but it might still be a thing.

[lark_ascends]

And maybe fear causing offence if they offer?

When I asked whether a man who had an obvious disability wanted to sit in my seat on a bus to my old uni, he pretty much yelled at me. And then proceeded to almost fall on the people in the seats he was standing next to right throughout the bus trip. I think there is a bit of fear of causing offence for most people.

Also, there's been a few times where there was no way I was going to stand up for someone because I was in so much period pain, and yes, unfortunately nobody is going to be able to see that. I still felt rude.

On the whole, though, people are so damned rude nowadays.

[lark_ascends]

PEOPLE!!!!