Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

thinking two men walking abreast would move for a ladee

73 replies

Datahub · 09/02/2015 14:31

Or anyone really, I suppose. Walking today on a path to the hospital tiny violin and they just didnt, I was PUSHED ( gasp) to the side as they careered on through.

AIBU DISCLAIMER
I do have a life/grip and get out more than i should
this doesn't really matter, no, but its a website where people chat about stuff.
I probably AM an entitled bitch etc etc

OP posts:
ZingTheGreat · 09/02/2015 14:52

i give up

Original poster
Datahub · 09/02/2015 14:53

i take the vase and SIWSH my hair Wink

OP posts:
Trufflethewuffle · 09/02/2015 15:00

Years ago my mum, in her seventies at the time, was walking home from the shops along a pavement wide enough for two and flanked by a high wall on one side and a muddy grass verge on the other.

Coming towards her were two mums pushing pushchairs and chattering. When they met mum they stood there just looking at her. Neither of them was prepared for one to drop behind the other, they just stood looking at my mum. Eventually my mum asked them where they expected her to go, did they expect her to jump over the wall?

She said then they sort of came to their senses and went single file!

Wherehestands · 09/02/2015 15:06

I really think that it IS a gender thing. Just try doing this for a couple of days - whenever you're walking along and someone is coming directly at you, force yourself not to veer to the right or left, but to carry on as you were. Then see what happens. IME, most of the time if it's a woman, they veer away ages before they meet you. If it's a man, they continue right at you, and if you're lucky veer away right at the last minute. Sometimes they refuse to veer away, and crash into you, or at least bash you in the side, or just stop and wait for you to move.

Wherehestands · 09/02/2015 15:07

This test must be carried out only by unattractive (in the eyes of men) women, or you will get a different test result.

MagnetsOnItsTail · 09/02/2015 15:38

I used to get this a lot, I'm very short and sometimes people would just barge me out of the way. Now, I just stand still like Truffles' mum, and this approach works.

AndWhenYouGetThere · 09/02/2015 15:40

Call their bluff and keep on going. It's quite a fun challenge.

OnlyLovers · 09/02/2015 15:48

I'm going to try Bert's technique.

ocelot41 · 09/02/2015 15:55

It totally is a gender thing. But be warned if you try it, you will have a lot of collisions.

I believe they call it manslamming? Kind if like man spreading but with added bruises

pepperpigmustdie · 09/02/2015 16:05

YANBU

it really annoys me when two or more walk together in a line. Luckily now though I have a large pram and I'm not going on the road for no fucker.

The other day we were in a traffic que because two horse riders were walking casually side by side in the road, happily chatting away , not a care about the eight cars crawling behind them.

MQv2 · 09/02/2015 16:15

Is it not largely confirmation bias?
Men think the same about women doing this (not giving way) so they notice it then when it's a woman and it justifies their belief.
Then forget the 99% of people who do give way or if its a man think "that's odd, it's normally only women you see doing that" thus once again strengthening their position even though no woman was involved in the incident.

I know I do have to check myself when my initial flash of "it's always women who wont give way" and remember actually its always just assholes of both gender who won't.

MQv2 · 09/02/2015 16:15

See also: letting people out into traffic

ocelot41 · 09/02/2015 16:17

Theres a proper study to be done here but you would need CCTV footage!

Amrapaali · 09/02/2015 16:20

So who is a ladee? An elder ladette?

MrsTerryPratchett · 09/02/2015 16:25

Manslamming. Bloody depressing, actually.

LiselotteHampton · 09/02/2015 16:34

Pavement bullies drive me mad. You can see them coming can't you. Sometimes I just stop in the pavement where I am rather than have them bash in to me.

LiselotteHampton · 09/02/2015 16:35

and it should be against the law to walk about town holding hands! takes up far too much room. Selfish gits.

Theoretician · 09/02/2015 16:43

Men don't make way for women

I'm a man, I route my way around everyone. I walk faster than most people, have more awareness of who is around me (including behind in crowded places) and have usually altered my route to take them into account before they're even aware of my existence.

I do find most women are fairly oblivious to their surroundings, are never aware of whose way they are blocking when stationary, and therefore (unlike me) never make the effort to get out of the way. This is probably also true of most men, but in order to balance the thread out I thought I'd be randomly sexist. Oh, and while I'm doing that, women drivers are far less likely than men to let a car out in front of them.

SoupDragon · 09/02/2015 16:49

I really think that it IS a gender thing

In which case, I wonder why the school mothers who are walking to school when I've already dumped my child and am walking back fail to move to single file and force me to walk on the grass verge or in the road?

Theoretician · 09/02/2015 16:49

I don't necessarily believe the women drivers thing. Just being grumpy.

SoupDragon · 09/02/2015 16:49

I think there are selfish, self important twats of both genders :)

SuperFlyHigh · 09/02/2015 16:51

I'm lucky in that where I work (SW19) there are wide pavements (lucky us!) so there's no need to move too much...

where I live there's a narrow road running downhill to the station though and with cars parked on kerb and if there are 2 people - yes you have to step off pavement or they do, we're mostly kind about this... Smile

I'm a bit of a slow walker so people have to go past me and a few years ago a man whacked me hard in the head with his rucksack as he was rushing past, my head hit railings and it chipped a front sort of side tooth badly (so it bled). I was pissed off with that (had to see dentist privately) and someone said if I'd caught up with him I should've asked him to pay towards/for it.

Original poster
Datahub · 09/02/2015 17:06

lol at the class divide on pavements.

OP posts:
elfycat · 09/02/2015 17:06

Did you make eye contact? If so there was your mistake. You were looking at them to check if they had noticed your lovely hair and BAM they knew, you knew that they were there.

In the City of London a few years back DH and I were walking through at nobber kick-out time. Men (mostly men anyway) in suits that cost more than my car, wanted the pavement.

DH wibbled in the face of pinstripes, but like a pheonix superhero but with a better name than Jean Grey.. I mean Jean is nice but it's not hot I told him to follow in my wake.

And I adopted a carefree, happy air of a tourist lost in the architecture of the buildings. I looked upwards the whole time and did not make eye contact. DH chuckled as he walked behind me saying afterwards that they tried staring me down, failed and had to leap out of my way.

Don't make eye contact - wins 95% of the time. Sharp elbows are for the other 5% Wink

SuperFlyHigh · 09/02/2015 17:09

Data - I don't know if it's a class divide but I have noticed that the pavements seem really wide in SW19!

Swipe left for the next trending thread