Well why didn't they just ask her to remove the books rather than shut the whole table down? I would have been hollering sexist abuse, or whatever nazi feminism insult applies in this situation, if they pulled this on me.
I wouldn't.
I would have first ensured I had bothered to read the requirements before attending.
I would have argued my case with the staff member (as Rebecca says she did), but would not have waited for
them to say that their boss could be contacted. I would have already have been demanding to speak to them myself - if I still felt I was in the right. I would not have cared how the staff member worded it, really.
If I was going to accuse the staff of behaving in an intimidating fashion, I would have supported this with my reasons for feeling so (e.g., he poked my shoulder with his finger, or he stood with his nose about 1cm away from mine while shouting in my face ...)
I would have checked if anyone else was doing the same as me at their stalls, and if so, photographed it, and asked management what the difference was. If no one was doing the same, I might reflect on that. I would have asked for a calm, private meeting with management to discuss the situation and understand how to resolve it for the future.
I
might have tweeted/facebooked it, but I definitely would
not have blogged it while still raw and angry. I may have typed it up, but would probably have waited until the next day and reviewed it when feeling calmer; particularly to see if the situation could be resolved before then by a discussion with the management.
I wouldn't be making any claims about sexist abuse unless I could see that men were clearly getting treated differently - not just from me, but from other women there. I don't see any point in using feminazi insults, really.
*shrug* ... that's just me.
