Make mine a big, powerful MAN-LATTE!

As I was passing the local café on the way into work this morning, there was a table of about 5 guys (looked to me like IT contractors, or something like that - you know, polo shirts tucked into Lowes trousers).

Their coffees arrived (5 lattes) and one of them asked, in a rather shortish fashion, for more milk in one of them (it was about 40% froth, so that was fair enough).

Then, another one of them yells out "yeah, and can we get them in boys' cups - I'm not drinking out of this glass, it's for a girl".

Derisory, manly chuckles ensued.

I know - I almost vomited too. And I was still wearing my helmet, so that would have been messy and expensive.

Now, either these men were trying really hard to emulate the French and had decided to assign gender to inanimate objects or, more likely, they were more than a little bit conflicted.

"Let's all meet up for a big manly get together at a girly cafe where we'll talk in a manly and disparaging fashion about the girly drinks we've ordered! ORDERED I tells ya! ORDERED like man!"

I mean, if you are that worried about continuously acting out your masculinity, why would you go to a café and order a latte?!

If anything in that equation was ‘girly’ (by traditional, schoolyard paradigms), it is the latte, and not the vessel it is delivered in.

What chumps. On so many levels.