Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Stranger "hits" DD - am I over-reacting?

279 replies

rosabud · 14/05/2014 23:17

My DD is 17. Today she was on the bus on the way home from school (6th form so not in uniform). It was crowded and old people were tutting at her and making it obvious she should give up her seat for them (there were free seats towards the back of the bus - not sure that is relevant). Nomally she would have given up her seat but she was tired, had been in an AS exam which had gone horribly wrong and her back was hurting. Personally, I think she should still have given up her seat.......but don't think that's an excuse for what happened next.

A seat behind her became vacant and, as an old man (in his 70s, she thinks) sat down in it, he hit/slapped her across the shoulder ('quite' hard - but not hard enough to cause injury) and told her that she should give up her seat for an old man next time. DD apologised and tried to explain about the exam and her back - but he did not answer her. Old people continued to tut at her and she sat there and cried!

She should have given up her seat, I think. But I am really angry that a man thinks he had the right to hit/slap her! Would he have done that to an older person like myself? Would he have done that to a teenage boy - I don't think so, surely he would have been too wary of being punched back?!

I am so cross! How dare he?! Am I over-reacting?

OP posts:
kickassangel · 14/05/2014 23:29

nope, he shouldn't have slapped her, even if she was laughing out loud very rudely. Whether she should give up her seat is utterly irrelevant. He shouldn't have slapped her.

don't see how you could report it, though.

Roshbegosh · 14/05/2014 23:27

Well she should have given up her seat. He should not have slapped her if that is what he did but she was definitely in the wrong to be so inconsiderate and selfish.

SolidGoldBrass · 14/05/2014 23:25

I think this is worth reporting to the police (one the non-emergency number) as it is an assault. Also, unless absolutely everyone else on the bus was also either elderly or visibly disabled, how come your DD was the one being hit and picked on? Why shoud she, rather than other (presumably) able-bodied adults, be the one to give up her seat?

TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 14/05/2014 23:22

No you aren't overreacting.

Angry