Derrygal

I suppose not!!!

bettyboo67

I do know what you are talking about but it really only felt intrusive when I lived in London in my younger days. Me and my sister used to dread walking to the tube in Finchley in the mornings, it was quite a long walk and the traffic was often at a near standstill and although young men in vans were the worst culprits, middle age men could be quite leery as well.
However now at 43 I have the opposite problem I feel that I have become invisible. A couple of years ago I got a wolf whistle while visiting the UK ( they don't do that sort of thing here in BC) and I can't tell you how chuffed I was

quoll

Nope, cant say that I can remember it has ever happened to me - not even when I was young and not too bad looking. Mind you I would be chuffed to bits if a crowd of lads in a car cheered me (maybe it would be jeering) now that I am 61 LOL.

Jon77

Too be honest I think SOME young women between the ages of say 18 - 35 have become rather more aggressive in some social situations and seem to copy male behaviour these days.

It now seems to be more than acceptable for women to grab hold of men in certain way and shout things. I have certainly come across situations abroad in Europe for example where females on holiday have become inebriated and their actions could be classed as assault on a male.

It also seems more acceptable for women to shout things to men these days in the street. I have heard a group of young women wolf whistling a man.

Any form of harassment by a male towards a woman, meaning any sort of unwelcome attention is never acceptable. The majority will always be male towards female. But it is an issue the other way around these days also.

Men of course prefer not to talk about these things much, a bit like female physical abuse against males in the home, which happens in small numbers but rarely reported but again is growing in numbers.

Welsh Heart

I thought this was a thread about the exchange rate lol.

izzi81

I currently live in Glasgow and have encountered this a few times, though not a considerable amount I have to say. I do find it uncomfortable, which is also probably due to the 'tone' of Glasgow which can make such comments not 'fun' but 'unnerving'. To be honest, on the scale of what I have experienced here, that type of comment I can brush off a lot more easily than threatening remarks. Both my partner and I have been threatened, separately, whilst walking home from our places of work (and not through bad areas). That scares me more than a suggestive comment!

charleygirl

I am from a big UK city and return to visit every year, I mean i am older now but have never ever experienced what you talk about..........yes when i was younger wolf whistles but i was always flattered....
Good luck, are you planning to return?

Bevm

I'm surprised that you put "Cheer up love it might never happen" in this category. That could be a poke at a glum face, but it's often a well-meant, Cheer up, luv.

Bev

Barbara B.

Oh I wouldn't mind the 'cheer up luv' comment if that is what it meant, a lot of the times I have experienced 'cheer up luv' it's been what we could call the milder end of it. But still about being intrusive and personal, I'm walking past, I'm not stopping and instigating a conversation, and where do we take it from there anyway? Okay, that would be on a bad day though. I suppose cheer up luv should be easier to brush off because it sounds so innocuous on the surface.

I am trying not to think of all the reasons I left England. But the street culture was one of them. I just remember feeling so oppressed by it.

I'd like to think I'd get less attention now that I am OLD (not old-er, but OLD) but I think if I got any attention it would be the abusive or jeering sort.

I LOVE the friendly banter with strangers that we get in the UK but I suppose the other side of that can be the good, bad and ugly of blokes shouting out whatever comes into their heads at women on the street.

I'd go bollistica at any of my boys if they acted like that, I'd say it was 'jerk' behavior. It would signal some kind of screw lose I think if they felt it okay to harangue people in the street about their appearance. I mean, what IS up with that?

Question being, how to navigate the risk? How to see it coming? What to tell the kids about how they should react or not react when they are simply not used to getting any kind of feedback from random strangers? I'd like to take it with a pinch of salt and it's helping to read of others who have not had the same experience of street harassment as I.

confusedenglishrose

I will say this to the OP. The only time I have ever encountered anything approaching harassment was when I first arrived in San Francisco in the mid 1990's while traveling on BART, little did I know I was so attractive to males at the time. Still I suppose if its going to happen SF is the place for it to occur

jmh

What part of the country are you talking about Barbara? I do find northerners a bit more familiar than southerners (calling you 'love' and all). I quite like the lack of formality, so it's not an insult or anything. Southerners are more reserved on the whole.

Barbara B.

What is 'OP'?

dunroving

"original poster", or "original post" (in this thread, that's you)

Barbara B.

London and north of that to the Midlands are the areas where I have the most memories of bother. I'm rallying against the idea that any of this is to do with geography. But then, my worry is that something that is happening in the UK, so I suppose I should accept I am already talking about an area. Blummen big area though. Sorry, thinking aloud here.

I don't want it to be about areas, and am in complete denial. Probably.

These people have made maps of where street harassment has been going down, I just need a worldwide one and then I am set

http://hollabackdc.wordpress.com/sub...arassment-map/ (U.S)

and

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=...9fa07c27cec48d (London)

and (I love the name: 'LASH')

http://lashcampaign.org/

I suppose, if people speak more about it, to our sons and daughters even, legislation won't be needed. I suppose it might just be about speaking about the issue more, and not accepting it if we don't like it?Maybe just the fact that people are talking about it will be enough to change stuff. Maybe together ---- we can make this world ---- a bedder place!

I think my spectacles are misting up.

Sally Redux

I think you must be overreacting.