WIBU to have slapped his face?

[BMW6]

This afternoon a man (mid fifties) in the street said to me "excuse me darlin' but can I tell you you've got really impressive tits"

Without any thought I slapped his face and gave him a raging dressing down - he just stood there stunned looking and mumbled "sorry darlin'" (which enraged me all the more)

I am conflicted - part of me is horrified that I reacted violently, the other part is still fuming and kind of glad I slapped him.

Did I over-react?

but also

Gotta, I don't condone slapping as a blanket rule, but in this case I find it hard to feel too exercised about it.

And I agree with this 'Well, we can, but we must accept any consequences that come our way.' Well, the same could be said for the men who think they're entitled to cat call, etc, in the first place.

Shame you didnt punch him on the nose

Piper It's a good natured compliment. Some people on here need to stop being so up themselves.

I'm assuming this is a joke/troll?

I'm honestly wondering who could find it a compliment. A sex worker perhaps? Someone with no regard for their personal safety? Or posted by a man?

CactusAnnie Yes Branleuse what a shame the OP didn't commit an even more serious physical assault.

it would be hilarious if she'd broken his nose and gone to prison.

Pretty unlikely though, as the courts are full of men being let off prison for much more serious assaults. Generally, they seem to require a whole serious of semi serious assaults to accumulate enough severity for a jail sentence, unless an additional factor was involved, such as knife carrying or resulting serious injury.

Again, please link to any reports of cases where women have been jailed for punching men who sexually harassed them. It would be interesting to read the judge's reasoning, and whether there was any appeal.

Thank you cactusannie

scremer

holding a different opinion to your clearly appropriate and measured response does not make me a troll

please refrain from saying so

CactusAnnie I don't need to find reports to know that it's against the law to physically assault someone by hitting them in the face .I agree OP would almost certainly not have gone to prison but that doesn't make it OK either.

No, its the job of the courts to decide what is against the law, not posters on internet sites. Which is why I asked if anyone has a case report to show the courts treating a similar incident as harshly as some non-lawyers on here seem to assume would invariably happen. I suspect the courts would actually allow quite a lot of leeway to a mid fifties woman slapping a man in the street who had sexually harassed her. I doubt whether it would be in the public interest to bring charges at all. And in the unlikely event it did end up in court, I suspect the courts would allow reasonable force, particularly taking into account, as one other poster pointed out, the fact that he was within slapping (and therefore touching) distance at the time he made the remark. Quite possibly it would be regarded as reasonable self defence.

I'm also really not convinced that these posters who claim that any minor form of self defence by a woman towards a man who is sexually harassing her will end up in prison, therefore women should not defend themselves. I have never heard of such a rule, mainly because it doesn't exist.

Even if the law were imposed in such a way as to render women defenceless, I'd rather take my chances with the courts than risk a man exacerbating his harassment towards physical attack.

I dont know cactusannie, i dont have a diagnosis yet. I think there are so many fucking misogynistic sex offenders out on the street and people who think its ok to harrass women, that the occasional one getting a slap or a punch in the face for it makes me smile. Fuck em.

Piper, how many times are you going to be deleted across this site for hollering 'troll!' at those who disagree with you? You sound unhinged and if you cannot accept that you do not have the monopoly on being right then it can only be concluded that you have little emotional intelligence.

Reported.

Cactusannie, thats OK, we are not the same person.

I think verbal assault and sexual harrassment is a legitimate excuse for slapping someone.
I dont advocate slapping people for no reason. He must have realised that when he made a completely inappropriate sexual comment about a strangers tits, to her face, that she might lamp him one? I mean isnt that what women would have done throughout history? A slap in the face. A whack round the head with the old handbag. Why are women supposed to just take it all now? because we have the ever shrinking police force to protect us? Because the courts are so good at prosecuting ACTUAL rapists that they would definitely be a deterrant to someone sexually harrassing women on the streets?

Having a gross sexual comment about your tits is obviously not the end of the world, but neither is a slap. He fucking asked for it, the wanker.

I am sure this is not the first time the op has been verbally sexually harassed

People get fed up of the so called casual sexist or racist remark or whatever other degrading remark someone chooses to throw their way. There is nothing casual about it it is done to demean people and on the odd occasion people react in this case not causing him harm but humiliation which was what he absolutely deserved.

It has totally been blown out of proportion on here this was not a planned attack she did not wait outside his house with a baseball bat she reacted to a situation where someone had not only got In her space he choose to degrade and humiliate her. As if he is going to go to the police station and file a report wtf is he going to say yes sir I often tell ladies what nice tits they have they love the compliment this one didn't and attacked me

He was so in the wrong and got caught out how many other women has he humiliated that day my guessing is more than one

Conscious I've said troll once I don't know what your issue is with me or why you keep attacking me (I don't recognise your username at all) but I am certainly not unhinged, I just believe a woman can feel physically unsafe when being sexually harassed. That has been my whole point and it seems to make you angry.

Also I do think it's very troll like for someone to come on a thread about a woman who has been sexually harassed, give her a and tell her it's a compliment and she's up herself. I don't think I'm reaching for the stars with that one. But rather than think I may be right you just report me as part of your bizarre and sudden hatred of what I have to say

I don't know how often a man who shouts 'Nice tits, love!' becomes a physical sexual abuser but I'm sure you have all the studies at your disposal

well he is certainly a man who does not respect women and feels that it is his right to degrade humiliate them - that is the usual thinking for an abusive man it is their way to show they have power

Screme

I realise that you have had your own issues and are projecting them upon this situation. Disagreement with your synopsis does not give you the right to denigrate me personally

Please refrain from spraying the thread with whatever conclusion you have conjured up in your mind and are now stating about me

My fantasies, in this regard, for the main part are for people to behave reasonably to each other. When that is impossible, I'd rather not escalate a situation to one of assault and battery.

Ronald sexual harassment is not reasonable (or even legal) behaviour either and that is what causes all of this mess

Ronald you have repeatedly hounded me on this thread ever since I posted about hitting a stalker who had previously been violent to me on two occasions, and successfully stopping his behaviour. I suspect the reason is that it challenges your view of the world that men should be able to get away with whatever they like and women should never retaliate, without terrible things happening to them.

You have repeatedly accused me of variously being a victim of multiple attacks from men and being mentally affected as a result, being violent, having anger issues, being too dangerous to be around, having various unspecified issues, suggested that sexual harassment is something very rare and specific only to me, and so on, without any evidence whatsoever to back up your strange and increasingly erratic accusations.

Now you appear to be issuing me with diktats to follow your increasingly bizarre commandments.

It would be laughable, if you weren't indulging in victim blaming and stereotyping. I find a lot of what you have written very disturbing.