To think that wolf whistling wasn't such a bad thing?

It's forcibly invading women's spaces while they're going about their daily lives. You will notice me.

Fuck that.

No one, no matter what they are wearing, should be whistled or yelled at.

Otherwise it is veering incredibly close to - "Your honour, she was wearing a mini skirt. That clearly means she wanted it".

It is valid you enjoy attention, but this is not the avenue to get it because your happy acceptance of it affects other women.

Oh come on, OP. In a way, porn wasn't as prevalent as it is now because we didn't have the Internet* or smartphones in the 70s and 80s and you couldn't beam literally any fetish video to your phone in two clicks. But we did have Page 3 in a variety of tabloid papers, usually of teens with blatant schoolgirl imagery used, most men had or had had at least one girlie mag knocking around, most men had viewed a porn video. Porn is prevalent now because of tech, not because women are humourless or lack gratitude for male attention

I only wish it were so.

What?? So if a woman is dressed up or works out she's asking for harassment??

Are you for real?

I like being whistled at but I wear crop tops and dresses and spend alot of time at the gym/money on my appearance. I think it's uncalled for if a woman is dressed normally or jogging though

So women calling out men for objectifying them had driven them to porn abuse?? Cmon, please tell me you're not that ignorant

The considerate constructor scheme was brilliant when it came in. Walking to walk was no longer a hellscape.

Ah yes. "Handle ourselves in a non threatening way".

In other words... we were taught to smile, placate, fawn and be grateful. We were taught to respond to such attention sweetly.

No one ever explicitly said "or else"... But it was there.

Don't smile quite big enough, get told to stop being miserable or sour.

Don't shout back "thank you" or send a little wave in response to a whistle, get "bitch" yelled at you.

Snatch your leg/hand away too quickly, you're a prude or a lesbian.

I'm sorry, but it is absolute bollocks. No one should be touching anyone without consent and men shouldn't be whistling or yelling at (often underage) girls or women.

Oh no, the poor menz are having to learn to treat us like actual people. What a pity.

We haven't gone anywhere near as far as we need to. The fact that 1 in 4 women are raped or sexually assaulted and the conviction rate is less than 1% tells you everything.

I would far rather men as a whole being terrified to touch anyone as a general rule.

But why do I want a compliment on how I look from a random stranger? Sure if I’m taking part in Miss Universe that might be appropriate, but if I’m just walking down the road then it’s bloody rude to comment on my appearance, good or bad, verbally or via a whistle. And pretending it’s a simple compliment, with no sexual overtones, is disingenuous - I would bet my house those men weren’t whistling at or complimenting random other men on their physical attributes.

Also maybe in the 70s women weren't so aware of the depravity of some men. Maybe they heard of some high profile murder cases through the newspapers and rumours that Jim at number 57 hits his wife, but light harassment probably seemed more harmless.

Women are much more clued up on the depths of perversion some men stoop to and how common it is for men to have bed intentions (recent France case for example or the teenage girl in Oldham who was sexually assaulted by FOUR different men who found her in a state if distress)

I went to ‘middle school’ aged 10-14. I used to get wolf whistled at all the time walking to/from school. Also had things shouted at me like ‘give us a smile gorgeous’. Creepy, not flattering.
Actually I think if you find leery men whistling at you flattering, when let’s face it they did it to most women walking past, I think you have self esteem issues.

It never bothered me.

I know where JL is coming from, because I am older and remember when women just accepted sexual harassment as part and parcel of every day life. It wasn’t seen as a big deal.
Thankfully the world has changed. We are more educated and more aware. Women and girls know now that this behaviour is not ok and does not have to be accepted wordlessly.
it is a shame that JL hasn’t moved on with the rest of the world.

It's all part of JL's shtick, isn't it? She is the elegant self-possessed woman whose beauty reduces men to vassals, so that she can gracefully indulge their gibbering without losing her cool control of them. That's essentially a man's fantasy, though. Not a woman's.

I don't blame her for playing out her professional persona. It's just important that no-one should take what she says for reality.

Sorry, it was meant to be constant cat calling and wolf whistling.

Personally I wasn't so desperate for unwanted comments and 'validation' of my personal appearance to take those as such.

It's not really about the wolf-whistling, though. It's great for Joanna Lumley that she thought it was wonderful. Fucking shite if you didn't think it was wonderful but knew there wasn't much you could do to stop it.

I wouldn't have minded wolf-whistling. But that's because what I got was being barked at like dogs and hearing comments like 'nice legs, shame about the face' and 'should've been born a man'. Now I suspect Joanna Lumley might say that wasn't very nice. But it's not separate from the wolf-whistle in that it all stems from the same idea. That because I am a woman, my body is fair game for judgement from random men.

It's not about whether some women liked it or not. It's the fact that it didn't make a damn difference what we thought about it. It's the fact that our preferences in the matter were so utterly irrelevant.

The thing is men don't know where to draw the line.

And over time they've become so porn sick that they don't care where the line is either.

Maybe 50 years ago some women might take a whistle as a compliment. Today it would be an indication a bloke has bad intentions and no boundaries.

Absolutely not, especially given most of it is directed at teens and young women - not older women in the public eye who might be more confident. If JL is really stupid enough to think it’s an expression of genuine appreciation rather than deliberate humiliation and intimidation (or to impress other male idiots) then she’s very naive. I was first wolf whistled at by a leering man in a white van who then shouted “show us your tits love” when I was wearing a primary school uniform age 10, walking home from school alone - how on earth is that ok?!

I had an older male in a position of trust constantly try and touch my leg, play with my hair etc when I was 17 and I didn’t know what on earth to do to stop him. He knew damn well that it was unwelcome and he was clearly enjoying the power play. It really wasn’t because he was just appreciating my beauty and sparkling personality. Fortunately my Dad got wind of it and that man was removed from my life. Now in my mid forties I’d be far more confident to tell him to get lost (and I’d also report him to his governing body) but funnily enough men don’t try it now.

Its gross and JL shouldn’t be given airtime to basically advocate for sexual harassment because she personally found it flattering.

I disagree entirely. I sprouted boobs when I was eleven, and I was ill prepared for the constant cat calling from men and boys, out car windows, from the other side of the street, from the same side of the bloody street, from boys and also from men old enough to be my fucking grandfather! And if I dared complain about it at home, I should 'not take it so seriously', it was 'harmless', I must 'learn to take a compliment', not 'be so militant'.

Fuck off.

And if I'd given a slap when someone put hands on me, I'd have been given a thump right fucking back. And when I got home, my mother would have given me a slap. Quite possibly followed up by a thump from my father. If he could catch me. Apparently I could run surprisingly fast.

Some of us didn't have the upper class life Ms Lumley did, and protections.

Is JL saying a man should be entitled to slap her then if she fondled their leg? No thought not.

Wolf whistling, unwanted leg touching and slapping are all probably best left in the past now, Joanna. I’d like to think we’ve moved on.