I'll try to help. Hint: The commenter wasn't literally saying that you work at a hardware store. They were issuing a completely accurate burn. Your assertion that you work in the sciences, another field where there are many, many men who are condescending and exclusionary towards women and insist that they aren't sexist but simply of superior intellect, elegantly illustrates that they were spot on. You're absolutely being the guy that works at the hardware store.