Men DO NOT have right of way!

Likewise, definitely not just men. Woman are just as bad, especially middle aged and older women. I get it a lot on our canal footpath where I walk 3 times a day - dog walkers, groups of ramblers, joggers, women walking 2 abreast, just expect me to leap out of their way as they hog the entire width of the footpath. Likewise I stand my ground now and quite enjoy their shocked faces that they actually have to move to one side or go into single file. Of course men do it too, but certainly around here there are more women on the canal path so it’s noticeable that it’s not just a man thing.

Part of the problem is that in the UK we don’t seem to have an established rule of etiquette that people should walk on one side or the other. A poster above mentioned a ‘keep to the left rule.’ In some other countries a ‘keep left’ or ‘keep right’ rule is more established. Here people just walk all over the place!

It's all sorts of people not just men.
So arrogant

While I'm not doubting your lived experience, I have to say that this isn't something I've noticed at all. If anything, I find men my age and older to be very coutreous about moving out of the way and holding doors open. The people who are unaware are, IME, young people. Of both sexes, but if anything girls are a little worse!

My point was that’s why they see younger women as sexually attractive. Because in their not overly evolved primeval subconscious mind, older women are less fertile. If it was purely about sex, then older women would be a more attractive prospect, as they’re generally better at sex and less likely to have a baby.

Step aside quickly, and say, alarmingly 'Dog shit!' and point behind you.

I’ve found that bellowing “MIND OUT!” as they loom closer gives them a salutary jolt.

When I did my back in a few years ago, I realised I'd been veering off and walking around people for years. Basically I realised when I couldn't do it. I'd become an old lady almost overnight; I had to walk in a straight line, changing direction hurt. I did a lot of stopping to let people round me. It was so obvious I was in pain, but (mostly) men got so huffy. Best was when I was holding onto a bannister walking down steps from a platform. An incoming twatty man actually expected me to let go to let him past. He stood facing off, hand on the handrail. I had two hands on it, to support my lower back. FFS, it wasn't even busy! I told him to fuck off, I was in pain and to move. Still tutted, and dramatically flounced past me.

I'm a patriarchy chicken player.
Yesterday I was walking home from the shops, with heavy bags in each hand. My quickest route home takes me across a railway footbridge which is wide enough for 3 people to walk abreast.
I was already halfway across, walking to one side when a man (late middle age, a bit older than me) accessed it from the other end. Despite there being no other pedestrians he switched to walk on the side I was on, coming straight towards me.
I didn't change my course, just carried on walking. So did he. He then got to where I was, muttered something and walked around me.
No idea what his issue was.
I was there first, and he had the whole other side to use.

I’m sorry that happened to you. Well done for standing your ground. Yes, as a BAME woman, I think being a woman and ethnic minority is often double the pain with these types of men.

Swimming patriarchy chicken is even better. My 18 yr old DD (5’1”, 45 kilos) looks dainty and fragile but is a REALLY strong and fast swimmer thanks to 7 years of swimming lessons and the core strength and fitness that comes from 18 hours a week competitive gymnastics training.

Men fully expect her to get out of the way in the pool, even though she was in the lane first, and can’t quite believe it when she comes at them like a cannon ball. Some of them even start trying to race her. God love them 😂😂😂

I find groups of women to be like this. They seem to think they are one singular object so 4 across and they think everyone else on the pavement should go into the road to avoid them. They seem oblivious or unwilling to scrunch up and go behind each other.

Sounds like a scene from SATC

A man in his 50s ranted at my disabled mobility aid using mother for being in his way - apparently people like her shouldn’t be out. She walloped him verbally but god do I wish I had been there.

@CoughCoughLaugh I get your point.

I’m alluding to scenarios when I start to move to the side a little and they make it clear they won’t do the same. I wouldn’t expect a man to walk around me. Just no straight at me as though I’m invisible.

yes, but also groups of school kids out in town during lunch break (girls are particularly bad) and also couples who feel they cannot possibly not walk side by side.

I have never heard of anything like that ever hahah

It’s like you’re wearing an invisibility cloak because you’re no longer of interest for breeding.

I don’t think it’s necessarily about “breeding” most men don’t want to breed with women they find attractive. They want to have sex and usually they don’t want a baby at the end of that.

I think it’s more a case of they don’t like the way women look after a certain age even though usually those women look faaar better than them. But that’s the patriarchy for you. As a young woman I always refused to date older men as I felt I’d be enabling them. Plus I just didn’t find them attractive!

Omg yes I’ve noticed this. I realised I’d be zig zagging around everyone, always me that moved, I consciously dont do it anywhere near as much.
It also drives me mad when people insist on walking side by side on a narrow pavement and I have to move into the road!

I was in Chicago once, in one of the central parts near to the river.

I can’t remember exactly what happened but I do recall this white older middle aged guy looked down at me with such anger as if expecting me to move.

I gave him a blank look and stood still. He was fuming. I had another case where I was deliberately shoulder checked by a white older man in another state when I was early 20s. There was plenty of space, he went out his way to barge me when I was wandering and standing slightly apart from the rest of the family.

And yes race is relevant to me as a POC, especially in the context of the U.S. not the exact same thing but I was in Baltimore once lined up to order coffee for me and my (South Korean) friend. The barista was doing something but she could see us.

A well dressed white southern woman in her 50s, stepped right in front of us.

I said heck no, we were first. And stepped back in front of her, she rolled her eyes and walked away.

The (white) barista who was a young woman shook her head and then looked at me and my friend, and said I’m so sorry this is just the way things are like here. She didn’t mention race but I’m fairly sure that’s what she was alluding to.

Yes, happens a lot. As with many other things once you get to mid-40s. It’s like you’re wearing an invisibility cloak because you’re no longer of interest for breeding.

For me, it literally went from unwanted attention to as if I was invisible in the space of a few years, yet I didn’t change much in face, body or clothes. Must be a primeval thing.

I always walk right at them looking them in the eye.

When my son was a baby I lived in a very famous yachting village.
I'd be pushing him in his pram along the pavement and whole groups of yachties (mainly men) would come walking towards me and seemingly expect me to be the one to step into the road with the pram. I never did but they always looked shocked and annoyed. I was a sailor too even if I didn't look like one when out and about on maternity leave and I just cringed at their entitlement and arrogance

I didn’t realise I followed the ‘keep left’ rule till I lived in the US for a couple of years and found myself more often heading towards someone. So since then I’ve kept right there and in Europe. Mostly it works - its groups of blokes and sometimes younger women spread across paths who are the worst path hogs IMO. But sometimes it’s necessary to walk that bit more assertively and/or stop dead to avoid being barged into the wall or road.

I usually find that visitors of any nationality tend to move. Whether other countries are more polite or they're not sure if the consequences I don't know.