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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what your best comeback for being wolf-whistled at is?

197 replies

legolegolego · 19/04/2015 20:42

I've recently realised that I walk past groups of rowdy men very sheepishly if they have started doing the whole wolf-whistle thing as I approach.

I'm not attractive so I imagine they are doing out of sarcasm but I've got to the point where I want to be able to walk down the street without worrying that someone is going to comment or whistle. Sometimes I have the children with me and they still do it?!

I want to be one of those strong women who challenges this kind of behaviour - give me some comebacks!

OP posts:
WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:11

Take it as a compliment - oh sorry are woman meant to be highly offended by a whistle, it's not like a woman would ever do that is it

DrinkFeckArseGirls · 22/04/2015 16:17

It's not a compliment. Someone has to be a cunt to be shouting/ whistling. I fancy people too, would look quite bizarre if I started doing the same. Why is it acceptable of men?

Are you desperate for compliments that you will take any shit from a man who want to fuck you?

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:19

Awesome advice, windmeup
The posters with 13 year old schoolchildren getting wolf whistled by middle aged men should tell them to just say 'thank you' and 'take it as a compliment' as well then?

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:20

Not not at all, I'm just not bothered by it to get all arsy! Just keep on walking, laugh it off. It's really not worth getting your knickers in a twist over

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:24

I was referring to grown women

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:26

Women do do it, your a bit naive to think they don't. (Not me, can't whistle, just do wit woo noises at DH)

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:30

You seem to think it ruins the lives of posters on here.
It doesn't, but if you don't like the unsolicited behaviour of passers by and are intimidated or uncomfortable by it, why should you just accept it and learn to 'laugh it off' and be flattered by it? is it really such a boost for a strange man to wolf whistle at you?
Is this really how far feminism has come? Were in the 21st century ffs.

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/04/2015 16:32

no they really do not have a culture of shouting abuse and oppressing passing men, windmeup,. get real.

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:34

Feminism is a bag of shite and most people that claim to be it are total hypocrites in my experience.

Life's short, a whistle isn't the end of the world and there are bigger fish to fry.

Loric · 22/04/2015 16:37

I usually use a variation of peado/how old do you think I am and look horrified. Mind you I can only get away with it because I do look stupidly young. A few weeks ago I got IDed for matches. I asked my 7 year old how old he was and who am I. I then pointed out I would of had to of been 7-8 when I had him to still be underage. (Am actually 27)

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/04/2015 16:37

"Feminism is a bag of shite"
so.....
you do not think that your daughter should be offered the same educational opportunities as your son?

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:38

Ah ok so when is it ok to wolf whistle a girl and becomes something she has to tolerate? Is it ok to do it to a 16 year old but not a 15 year old? Or wait until she's 18?
Is following a woman a compliment, or shouting rude things to her a compliment, or just wolf whistles? It's all unwanted attention.

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:40

Invalid question, don't have daughters

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/04/2015 16:41

I was speaking hypothetically as anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have realised.

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:41

Good job you don't really!

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:49

Cook, someone following you is different than a whistle.

"feminism" is shit, because it's been twisted and turned like many other things and used as a stick to beat people with. It is not what it once was and stood for

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/04/2015 16:50

" "feminism" is shit "
you are not displaying a knowlege of what the term means, you just sound really....thick.

SiobhanSharpe · 22/04/2015 16:56

No, feminism is, as it has always been, having equal rights and opportunities for women and girls. That's all. But apparently some people find this threatening.

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:56

Wouldn't you find it such a compliment than random man thought you were so attractive that he decided to follow you though? Honestly take it as a compliment and smile... It wouldn't be worth getting your knickers in a twist about, would it?

grimbletart · 22/04/2015 16:56

Invalid question, don't have daughters

Phew, that's a relief.

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 16:57

Sorry, I thought this was a trashy forum, not a formal exam. I shall do my best to write more eloquently in future as I cannot possibly have a random stranger assume I am "thick"

SunnyBaudelaire · 22/04/2015 16:58

you do that, it will be doing yourself a favour

CookPassBabtrigde · 22/04/2015 16:59

I don't think it's the way you're writing, I think it's the backwards belief that sexual harassment should be seen as a compliment.

TheFecklessFairy · 22/04/2015 17:01

I usually take a bow and smile. But it doesn't happen often these days Sad

WindMeUpAndLetMeGo · 22/04/2015 17:03

I just don't see it as a big deal, certainly not something to fret over. Clearly someone following you is a different matter, where children are involved that is also a different matter.

However I posted my response as a grown woman, some builder for example whistling isn't going to mentally scar me for life, it's just a non-event