Abuse while running :(

My favourite response if I hear a man slagging off a woman’s appearance is
“look at you, Mr Fucking Universe”. Generally shuts them up.

@Writingonthewalls I know, delightful chap!

I've had a few inane comments over the years, but pretty light fortunately. I do the majority of my running away from through-routes which cuts the scope down a lot. Those roads I can't avoid tend to be too loud, fast and busy to make leaning out and yelling insults much of an entertaining hobby.

I wear bone conducting earphones which add background noise to me.
I suspect my build may help a bit. I'm not busty, young, old, blonde or "sexy". I'm neither overweight, nor strikingly lean. I'm somewhere between a range of factors that seem to animate this type of moron into action, neither arousing jealousy nor their sense of superiority. To some being female is enough though. None of these factors is the fault of women, and none of them should make women targets of abuse.

It is enraging that so many women are put off healthy activity by these entitled, thick gobs.

I remember when sports facilities were closed, there was brief media coverage of the issue when a group of professional female athletes were having issues during their road runs.

Wow, doesn't it say so much about the type of bloke who yells this type of thing, that they only dare do it to women.What princes!

My daughter did this once. She completely lost it with a van of men and went up and shouted at them at the traffic lights. They all looked very sheepish and drove off. So it does work sometimes. I admit though that it could have turned out badly.
She also lost it with a taxi driver in India who wanted a threesome with her and her friend. She turned her rage on him and he shut up and behaved. She does have a very fierce temper. ( like me).

What sort of person talks to his mother like that anyway? Disgusting. He’s talking to an elderly woman about another woman fgs.

@ImNotReallySpartacus haha! Tbh I did think that myself afterwards!

I remember once telling 2 of my sons that I rarely went out on my bike without some comments right back to age 14 (large breasts). I don't cycle much these days but even when I was 50 someone wound down his window to make some kind of gesture or sound. it is as if men want to control the public space. I was just watching a netflix programme about women who had been in Raqqa in Isis about how they were forced to police how women dress and of course that was utterly terrible but even here in the UK some men seem to want to own the outside in a sense.

I know it's not the answer, but if you want a nice, friendly and inclusive run on a Saturday morning, do Parkrun. If you don't know about it, it's worth a try.

Get a body cam. I was out cycling yesterday and had a car pass far too close, it really frightened me. I reported it to police as I had a camera that caught it. Not sure that any action will be taken, but I still felt better for doing it.

Afterwards I was looking at the stats for reports of this sort of thing versus action by police. It was far better for pedestrians than for cyclists so worth doing as a runner. You may not get anywhere unless they are in a vehicle and so identifiable but still worth doing so the scale of the problem is better known by everyone.

I know it is a pain and an extra cost, but at least it means action can be taken. I find it odd that there are so many tv programmes about bad driving but I don't think I have seen one in relation to harassment of runners and scaring cyclists.

This is a great idea

Of course it's all men...of all ages too

And yeah, I’m sort of getting older and the nature of the comments might change. Tbh, ANY comment is unwelcome and it pains me that I have to drown out those fellow humans. But, cyclists and runners are seen as fair game, and women get the worst of the mental abuse, men more often get the violence.

Honestly, get contacts and wear the headphones. They are essential. Recently I had a couple of the black-clad, balaclava-wearing, electric vehicle young guys shouting something at me. Headphones mean I don’t have to take on what they are saying.

Perhaps a website to upload content and name and shame is needed?

its £35 on Amazon for a body cam with 3 hours of recording. My daughter has one for walking the dog and I have just brought one for starting coach to 5 K / I love my dash cam and happy to put up photos of the man driving on my side of the road who called me a four eyed count whilst I was driving on the left hand side whilst he came around the corner on the right - the van had the company details on and his employer was very interested in the footage I emailed, as was the police. We ought to name and shame

As a female cyclist, I've received a few shouts/ yells from white van man.

Hubby is a runner as am I we both get comments sometimes but just ignore it

I stopped running after two horrible incidents within a week of each other.

The first was when a car full of grown fucking men threw eggs at me, the second was a different man who took a photo of me running and posted it on a local Facebook group with a caption about how fat and ugly I was.

That post was up for days before the admin finally took it down. Dozens of comments from men tearing every aspect of me apart.

All of these men were complete strangers. Men really do hate us.

I like to think I would stop and give them each a specific insult about their bodies and faces to give them something to niggle at their egos.

In reality I’m not sure!

This is why if I run or jog I use a treadmill in the gym

' we’re not hurting anyone or taking up space. '

Oh but you are. You are hurting their pride that you are fit and able to run whilst they are younger and less fit. They therefore have to mock your age and try to discourage you from showing them up. They also need to keep women in their place. These are small minded shitty individuals who can only bolster themselves up by attempting to kick down climb over others. They're also counting on the fact that you won't stop to challenge them or outwit them.

Oops it was from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, sorry.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-05/harassment-female-runners-gendered-issue-no-simple-solution/8086354?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web
If the link works, this is from the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in 2016 - and it's still happening!
When I used to go out running I had men in cars try to push me off the road into the gutter. It was truly scary.