To wonder honestly what must go on in the minds of some men?

[VladmirsPoutine]

I've just taken my niece out for lunch. She's 16 and with the arrival of the weather she's been wearing a t-shirt and a mini skirt with her converse. Typical look for your typical teen but for just during lunch alone she was accosted by 2 different men who asked for her number. Both men clearly middle-aged and trying their luck. I admit she does look older than a teen but sheer audacity of these men hitting on a 16 year old girl really riled me.

at most I've ever got is "sorry mate didn't realise you were her dad"

I remember (black) comedian Stephen K Amos saying once about overhearing people telling nasty racist 'jokes' and him calling them out on it:

Racist: "There was this [nasty vile racist term], right...."
SKA: "I beg your pardon?!"
Racist: "No, not YOU!!!!"

I suppose, at least, he was the one they backtracked from (didn't get as far as apologising, though) - not his perceived 'owner' as if he were some kind of property.

Some people are absolutely vile. I was married long before OLD was a thing, but I do occasionally glance idly through the small ads in the paper and I don't think I've ever seen a 'men seeking women' one where the seeker has given an upper age limit older than himself. Usually, the specified age range of woman they're looking for tends to be between 20/25 years younger than them to 5/10 years younger. Obviously, they wouldn't want some 'old' person 15-20 years older than they are and yet they imagine that that's exactly what all women are looking for.

Laughing it off will just give them the idea it’s ok to do it. I think she should look them straight in the eye and say ‘you do realise I’m just 16’ in quite a loud voice.
I remember a TV chat show with a young actress (16 or 17) and the host and other (all male) guests were talking about how sexy an older actor was and didn’t she think so and getting quite suggestive and she just looked st them and said ‘I don’t know I’m only 16 (or 17)’ followed by a very awkward silence as they all realised what pervs they were!

Utterly vile - I remember being aware of this kind of attention from about age 11 onwards.

Also, in your situation, even if she were 20 it would still seem pretty optimistic and entitled for a middle-aged man to approach her!

@Siameasy I had this same rant with me DH the other day when this bachelor guy was picking out her new "beau". He picked the most obvious one of course. No matter how gross, physically or emotionally men are the ALWAYS think they shouldn't settle for any less than THE BEST.

One of my ex's actually told me that he'd dumped someone once because "her boobs were too small"

I'm already noticing DD getting looks. She's 10 We went shopping for summer clothes recently and I really struggled to suppress the instinct to make her buy stuff that 'covered up', any thoughts how to navigate this as I feel completely torn between feeling she should be able to wear what she likes and wanting to protect her from unwanted attention.

I'm trying to find the petition where two girls (sisters possibly?) are calling for street harassment to be made a criminal offence.

It was a Change.org one...

My answer for the 12 year old one would be .... she is 12 I suggest you leave before I call the police. They quite clearly can see how old she is. That is not right at all

Sadly she wasn’t with me. She was coming home from school.

She did as I told her and approached the guard. Who declined to assist.

Mint love the idea of a cattle prod, right in the genitals maybe. My daughter got chatted up by a much older guy, she told him she didn't date OAPs.

They think that "lots of girls fall for older men".

I've actually heard some middle-aged men say this, and they'll cite an example of a rock star with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter (not mentioning any names).

They seriously believe it.

Nothing changes I see.

Working as a temp in an office back in the late 60s I remember one of the middle aged directors of the company asking if I'd like to go to Brighton with him for the weekend; I'd never met this man before.

Bloody insulting when you think about it.

It seemed to be part and parcel of male behaviour when I was a young woman and it always seemed to be middle aged men in my experience who behaved like that.

What were they expecting you to say; 'ooh yes, I'm 19 years old, of course I want to go out to dinner/to a bar/away for the weekend with a paunchy middle aged married man, yes please.' Idiots

My best friend and I were talking about this recently. We used to stand at the end of my street when about 12 maybe and chat for ages, the amount of men that used to drive past and beep and stare was crazy. We perhaps looked a little older than we were but were in our school uniform after school 🤷‍♀️
I also remember going on a family holiday at around 12/13 to Tunisia and literally being followed and harassed everywhere I went-vile.
As an attractive women when I was on my 20’s for example, I got nowhere near as much attention as I did from age 12-17

*In

DD felt she was targeted because she was in a school uniform. She's 19 now, looks about 15 and very short and the amount of lecherous pervs who consider her "fair game" is vile. She's not afraid to tell these scrotes her opinion of their behaviour. Sickening.

The first time a man requested a blow job I was cycling to school aged 11, he was in a suit driving a family saloon type car so probably had kids. It was over 40 years ago and nothing has changed!

I’m absolutely fucking sick that this shit still goes on.

Why are we having to teach our daughters how to manage it?! Why aren’t - what appears to be a fairly large proportion of - men just capable of being decent humans?!

This happened a few times when I was out and about with dd when she was that sort of age. I'd just stand in front of her and say:

"LEAVE MY CHILD ALONE!!!"

You should have seen their faces The back off pretty quick, I can tell you.

My ex's eldest is an extremely pretty girl. He told me that when she was 14, he was out shopping with her, and older men made comments, whistled, and gesticulated at her. When she was with a man who was very clearly her dad (she looks very much like him).
Quite frankly, they're extremely lucky he didn't do anything about it. lt's disgusting that young girls can't walk the streets without perverts drooling over them. And l'd put money on the fact that a lot of them have daughters of their own.
lt's not just girls, either - l have a friend who is an extremely 'pretty' young man in his early 20's. He's a landscape gardener, and he was on one job (the height of summer, doing a very heavy stone laying job, so he had his shirt off) when two older men came out of a nearby building. They said something to each other, laughed, and then he heard one of them say "He'd get it....."
He went across to them and said "l can hear you, you know!" They weren't bothered in the slightest. Just laughed and walked off.

I feel like it has/does remind me of my own experiences with creepy old men who felt entitled to my attention. For some reason I can deal with it but got the rage when I witnessed my niece experiencing it.

I look very young for my age and was once pushing my bike through a park wearing a knee length black skirt, coat, hair in bunches (unbeknownst to me that was v similar to the local school uniform of the area and the school had just finished so I kind of blended in!). A middle aged guy starting walking with me and chatting me up, when he found out my age (32 at the time!) he was visibly shocked and made a quick getaway. It was only then I twigged he'd assumed I was 16 or so - totally gross.

At 16 she's already learning to appease men so they don't get aggressive towards her.

This says it all about how far women's rights still have to go before we are ever considered anywhere near equal to these pervs. There tends to be surprise at a woman being any older than her partner let alone 30 year older (often considered disgusting) but for men they seem to think it's OK. Double standards through & through.

It’s quite bizarre also how it’s often ‘Much’ older men than them at that age?
I can’t remember it being guys in their twenties doing it as much, for example when I was a young teen 🤷‍♀️Wtf

I dealt with it as a child and now I see it starting for my god daughter. She is 10 and she looks 10. There is no debate about “well she looks old enough”, she looks like the child that she is. These men revolt me. A cattle prod would not be enough.

But then I think of all the lovely men I know who breeze through life without even really registering teenage girls. I like to think they are in the majority, though I sometimes fear they are not.

You should have gone over and told them that she was 15 and that you work as a freelance paedophile hunter.

As you say, nothing changes. On the way to school when I was about 13 I had to walk past workmen who were building a bridge over a railway line - the job seemed to take months. No alternative route. We dreaded it as the men would openly lean on their shovels and stare like we were meat. As a very shy girl I was mortified - they were literally licking their lips.

Would "On your bike, pervert" suffice?