What about in the face-to-face world? Has anyone made a hurtful wrong assumption about you based on a false interpretation?

I was denied entry to a public event a few weeks ago and was not supplied with a reason.

So here's the story. My business partner and I were going to a mining convention - an industry that has historically been dominated by conservative males. We were dressed... pretty frumpily, to be honest. I had a sweater and jeans (I look student-aged, so I was passable) while by business partner had a black SPACE t-shirt and a backpack. At the ticket booth, there was a guy in a suit behind the woman selling exhibition-only passes (advertised as open to the public) who whispered a few things to her. When my business partner got his turn to buy a pass, she said "I'm sorry, we cannot let you in."

Now he's actually a pretty well respected guy in mining research despite his appearance. Two masters degrees from the school that was in part sponsoring the event, in fact. Still denied entry. When he asked why, we received no answer and we were bounced out by another guy in a suit. Very strange.

Day 2 we returned in suits, armed with business cards, and AGAIN the woman at the booth said no. She said it was out of her control and that her superior made the decision. We demanded to speak with him.

So he came and spoke with us and we explained that we were there to network and do business. We showed him our cards, and he apologized. He thought the day before that we were environmental activists who were going to protest the speech that was being made in the next room. I informed him that there was no dress code specified for the event, and we thought it was open to visitors. That was in fact true. To make up for it, he comped our tickets AND gave us VIP passes to the event, which actually turned out to be quite helpful.

I learned a lot in those 48 hours, and I'm not sure if all of it is expressible here. Certainly I got a more accurate view of myself and it has sharpened my self-perception. Sometimes another's assumptions useful for your own self-realization.