To wonder why men still do this?

[Marvelboys]

I was sitting at some traffic lights today in my car, nice sunny day so window wound down, toddler ds in the back, minding my own business waiting for little guys to change.. A youngish man in a van waiting at lights going on opposite direction.

All of a sudden he shouted really loud at me "I hope you've washed it". I jumped out of my skin as it startled me, and looked over to see who was shouting, so he laughed and mimicked my jumping, I gave him a filthy look and he loudly said "hahahaha" and drove off.

I think the "hope you've washed it" was referring to my hair as I was fiddling with my hair. But really, what the fuck?

I thought my days of casual street harassment were over but apparently not.

Lack of manners.

I’m going to be “that woman” again, sorry.
But some posts on here caught my attention- a random selection follows
“The look on his face when I turned round with a 7 month pregnant bump and laid into him and his friends sign a lecture on exactly why that's inappropriate behaviour”
Why did it on,y become inappropriate when they saw your bump?

“Because they are entitled twats who each think they are the most entertaining centres of the universe. Next question?
How are we raising these men?”
Why is it up to women to raise civilized men?

“Guy: Nice wig, Janice. What’s it made of?

Janice: Your mom’s chest hair/”
So use another woman in the put down?

“Men are generally immature cocks up to the point they meet a woman stronger than them and get put in their place.”
Once again- why is it up to women to police men’s behavior?

Also, got to say, they don't do this abroad. It's a British thing. Ugh.

You've got to be joking! Have you travelled much?

“Also, got to say, they don't do this abroad. It's a British thing. Ugh“

It’s not a British thing. It’s a man thing.

I have seen a middle aged relative cat called in the US whilst walking down a street with her kids and husbands in the middle of the day. In Utah, of all places!

Going back to driving, my pet hate is men that stop and flash to let you out at a junction but then get annoyed when you don’t because there’s traffic coming from the opposite direction. Mate, I’m not going to kill myself just because you’ve deigned to be nice to a lady!

The poster that said they don’t do this abroad have you ever left England?! When walking round demurely dressed but unaccompanied young and attractive
Egypt - constant
Italy pretty bad
France once flashed at twice in one day in st malo

Swift I'm not the poster who said they dont do this abroad but funnily enough I was going to post earlier saying I'd never experienced it since moving to Australia.

Men just don't do it here...neither of my DD"s have been subjected to it either.

As a 21 year old in Turkey I got groped walking down the street, and dragged into a shop by my hair. I hate the cat calling, but let’s not pretend that misogyny is a uniquely British problem.

@HennyPennyHorror that's a point, I lived in Australia for a year and never got it there, not once thinking about it.

I never got the street harassment in the Benelux, Germany and Denmark either. I've always felt fairly safe in those countries outside the main centres of Brussels and Rotterdam. In Britain it was constant. Spain on one visit years ago was just as bad I agree.

Show and I've often wondered about the Aussie image of a typical sexist and racist....it's just not true. There's loads of support here for the arts too. It's not the hard country people make it out to be.

On a slightly related note, I hate it when I pull up to traffic lights and in the car next to me there’s a group of men and they start making indecent gestures at me, Or they all start looking at me and laughing! My face goes really hot and I can’t get away quick enough, trying to avoid eye contact by looking straight on!

Some blokes in a car started shouting ‘milf’ at me as I was walking down the road with my kids, I mean, why do they think that’s acceptable. I was the one that was embarrassed and I hadn’t even done anything, just going about my merry way!

wanderings we experienced this recently. I was out with DH (he was driving), driving on a major road with a large supermarket to the left. Our road was traffic-light controlled, leading onto a roundabout.
As we passed the Supermarket, a car suddenly pulled out in front of us (from its car park) without looking. DH gave a brief tap on the horn to alert the driver to the fact that there was oncoming traffic.
Well, that sent the other guy into a fury. He pulled across in front of us into the r/h lane, then slammed his brakes on (forcing the car behind him to stop). Then he started shouting and flipping the bird at us. Then he did a wheel spin forward, cut in front of us and braked again, still shouting, turning around and ranting. Finally he cut across to the right again, nearly sideswiped another car in the furthest lane and sped off through a red light.

Also, got to say, they don't do this abroad. It's a British thing. Ugh.

I'm not sure where abroad you are thinking of but I've lived in countries where men actually install wolf whistle car horns

They have no respect for women and are likely low level misogynists, that is why.

I lost a lot of weight a few years back and had lots of confidence but walking down the street would regularly have men beeping their horns at me or shouting things from their car windows. This even happened when I had my young DC in tow. It was so very degrading and depressing.

I drive a fairly unusual convertible sports car. Not crazy expensive or flash but not something you see every day. I love it and know way too much about it’s performance, horsepower, etc.

It’s like catnip for wankers. I either get shitty catcalls or twats who genuinely can’t quite believe that a woman is driving it and feel the need to express this sentiment verbally. Mostly I ignore it, but I have been known to pretend I couldn’t hear and ask a twat to repeat himself 2-3 times in front of his mates if he said something particularly vile. It’s just obscene and revolting and purely designed to intimidate women. Misogyny in its purest form.

My personal favourite was waiting at the car wash with my Dad. Pa nipped in to get a token and as he came back and got in the passenger side we heard a bloke say, blimey that’s left hand drive, must be an import. Clearly a more reasonable and rational explanation than a woman driver!

It's like dogs barking.

Hard to really accept a lot of the male population as fully human really.

Sad.

Some men (not all) turn into idiots behind the wheel.
After years of having smallish cats my DH bought me a German SUV which is lovely but I’m considering downgrading as it seems to bring out the worst in certain men.
Racing me off the lights, becoming angry and shouting that if I can’t drive I should stay off the road if I take what they deem is too much time to park, also forcing me to pull over when there’s not enough space on the road for two cars even if was on the road first or it’s easier for them to do so.

The ones that have always really baffled/worried me are the ones who do it while alone. It's horrible and even scarier when it's a group, but I understand (though do not condone) their motivation - to show off to each other and show how 'witty' they are, etc. The ones doing it alone presumably are motivated purely by scaring women, which is disturbing.

I'm finding it happens to me less and less as I get older, thank god. I still find it intimidating to walk past groups of men in the street, though.

I also laughed disbelievingly at the pp saying 'only British men' do this. I've found it much worse in probably most (though definitely not all) countries I've travelled to, sadly. I remember going on holiday to Sicily with two female friends when I was 20 and sadly the whole holiday was basically runned by how constant and frightening it was.

For runned read ruined!

@donajimena
God I really hate being “helped” to park if anything it makes parking harder with some twat doing that hand ✋🏾Thing!!

When i could drive my pet peeve was men who were strangers trying to "help me" parallel park with hand gestures like yep bit further, stop etc.

Not usually one to generalise but only ever had men do this, happened a few times and I was perfectly capable of doing it without help. Then it's way more stressful because you have an audience!

@shitwithsugaron
I remember working in BHS as a 15 year old over 20 years ago I looked around 11 and the amount of sexual innuendos from male customers I even had regulars one of whom reported me for not smiling and saying thank you (I didn’t smile as he came in every Saturday and intimidated me) I luckily had an older (she was probably about 30😊) who was incredibly protective and made sure that she served him.