Ways middle aged men have told us off this week

[Siblingsadness]

I've got 2 today and it's not even midday yet
I swim every day at 6am . There's normally about 6 of us, today I had the pool all to myself. I swam in one of the lanes as i am working on staying straight during certain strokes. After about 20 minutes a man got in the pool. I've seen him before, he always goes in the unlaned bit and does physio walking up and down.
Today he came over to the lane and said I shouldn't be in there as its the fast lane and I wasn't fast. I thought he was joking so I laughed. He then said he wasn't joking and I needed to move. Of course I told him not to be ridiculous, no one else was in here and if someone fast wanted it, I'd move. He called me a silly batch.
Then just now in tescos, I was in the pasta aisle and a man picked up a jar of pasta sauce and said "is this any good" I said I wasn't sure sorry, I normally just get the passata and put onion and garlic in it. He sort of mocked me and said "ooh good cook are you" I said yes, I'm OK and I enjoy it too. He then said "well at least I can parallel park you silly cow"
Now I know I just encountered 2 nutters (maybe a third is on the way) but I'm a bit cheeky and a cow before lunch today despite just going for a swim and buying cheaper pasta ingredients. 🤣🤣

Do you think women shouldn't be allowed to talk about bad experiences they have with men because you consider it 'man bashing? Are the men behaving badly 'woman bashing'? or is it just things women say that's the problem?

Double post

I have yet to have an opportunity to try this out, but I hope I would have the presence of mind to say "as a matter of interest, how many men have you asked this question to?" in response to these sorts of questions.

Are you out with dh today then?

I had 2 last week. First one was a middle aged man in an old Merc basically middle lane hogging. I overtook him in the fast lane as you are supposed to do then came back into the middle lane in front of him. He then proceeded to overtake me and pull back I front of me. He was going so slowly so I overtook him again in the fast lane and back over. He then overtook me once more but this time as he passed me he stuck his middle finger up to me. Why? Because I overtook him and I’m a woman? I don’t know the reason.

Second one - I put my photo on a friends site. It’s for making friends/dating but isn’t strictly a dating site. A middle aged man named Alan commented under my photograph “I bet you’ve seen more ceilings than Michelangelo! wtf. Why would you even comment something like this? Cue lots of other posters telling him he’s rude and he should be reported to admin which I did. It took them hours and hours to remove the comment though.
I commented back to him instead of ignoring him and said “I beg your pardon” and he said “oh come on, you’ve obviously flattened some grass”. I told my daughter and she couldn’t stop laughing at the cheek of it but I was absolutely mortified

None? Dont' think I've annoyed anyone but my adult DC this week.

In a Post Office I hadn't been to before, I was confused by the two different counters at different ends of the shop and just one queue, which looked like it was just for the counter that sold sweets, etc. I walked past the queue just to have a look where I should wait and a man in the queue started muttering. I asked if this was the queue for both counters and he said Do you think I'm standing here for fun? and continued muttering about people "pushing in". I said to him I'm sorry I upset you but I haven't been in this PO before and I didn't know the queuing system. Why don't you just speak louder so I can actually hear what you're saying about me?
Then the woman standing in between us piped up I've only come in for stamps!
Which made a bizarre situation funny!
Miserable sod at the front carried on muttering till it was his turn to be served.

I have had so many scenarios like this. I used to swim a lot and men were always the worst for bad lane behaviour. They cannot possibly EVER be slower than a woman in the pool. It's so tiresome. The worst times though were when I used to cycle a lot to work: the verbal abuse (mostly sexual), deliberately cutting me up, or trying to force me off the road. The final straw was when a van passenger smacked my arse as he went past shouting something about "if I liked that he had more coming." The fact that he was moving quite fast and I was moving too meant I wobbled badly, and came off my bike right in front of another car. Luckily the person driving that car stopped and helped me - I needed to go to hospital as I'd broken my elbow. Both the driver and the passenger got sacked thankfully but it totally put me off cycling in towns ever again.

Now my ire is saved for Very Important Male Commuters, mostly those who absolutely MUST get on the train before me and race to a rare seat. I never feel more invisible as a woman that when getting on a busy train, the manhandling and shoving out of the way has definitely increased as I have got older and my worth as a an attractive young thing (in their eyes) has gone. I usually smile and say "no go ahead, your need is greater" which seems to hit the spot.

This. ^ Awwww, da poor iccle menz. 😢

Great answers! I'm noting them down!

Not exactly told off but I was in Tesco with my wife and we noticed there was a Real Greek range and I said ooh I love gyros! (Pronounced incorrectly - giro) and a man approached me and said that’s not how you pronounce that. It’s Gyros - (yeero) a giro is a benefits check. I was like oh ok. But I was really annoyed lol. Does it matter? Why did he feel the need to interrupt a strangers convo to correct their pronounciation!

(I’m also female, which I think changed the dynamic if you read that assuming I’m male)

I wound my window down, just sat and stared at him and said (in my best Margot Leadbetter voice) 'fuck off you twat

OOH I'd love to see an AI thingy of Margot saying this!

Because he was a sad twat.

That's a very restrained response!

I don't know why but I assumed you were a woman but I can see it could have been a man. Maybe it's because a majority of posters are women so that's my default. I should be aware of jumping to conclusions

Good. Stay there. 🙂

You seem to attract some strange people, which most of us don’t. 🤷‍♀️.

I have decided now I've hit middle age not to feign interest any more when boring men regale me with their experiences and opinions. Honestly we are so conditioned to act polite and act like we think they are interesting simply to spare their feelings. Obviously when it's a genuine conversation with proper give and take and genuine interaction it's different - those are actual conversations between equals.

I had some bloke walk into my office not long ago; he's a well known local bore (and boor) so my heart sank at the mere sight of him. He opened with "I've noticed much more x this year, why do you think this is?" (some observation about a natural phenomenon). I said "Well..." and was about to explain in scientific terms why this phenomenon might be accounted for. He cut over me and said "Because what I think is this....." and drew a breath to to tell me his very important manly opinion. I said "I'm very busy, do excuse me" and walked into the inner part of my office and shut the door. It was really refreshing.

I was once on a crowded Waterloo andf City train in the morning. For those of you who don't know the details of london tube lines - it' only has two stops - waterloo to bank. So it arrives empty, fills, then empties completely on the other side.

I was pregnant but not showing and not wearing a badge. Which is why I think I had the "don't give a fuck" attitude that allowedf me to do this:

Man pushed onto train in order to grab seat, elbows flying. Fine. Absolutely packed train with people standing between the seats etc. I find myself standing directly in front of this man. When we get to the other side, doors open and all the people standing in the bit where the doors are start getting off. He attempts to stand up - defacto pushing me and possibly other people out of the way - to get off first. I fling my arm out in front of him andf block him by grabbing the pole on the other side and bark, "You pushed for a seat, now you're just going to have to wait until everyone else has moved before you can get off."

He sat back down rather shamefaced. I got off the train!

In the worst example, I was aggressively shoulder barged almost into traffic by an arrogant uppity older man who obviously felt he was far more important.

It didn’t occur to him to simply cross the road or wait for a wider stretch of pavement to pass me, or to excuse himself to pass me if it was that urgent.

Worse he felt totally justified in his abhorrent and physically abusive behaviour, zero self awareness or remorse for hurting me. I disagree these men are mostly single though.

Yeah I assume everyone is a women but I’ve noticed in the past if I don’t clarify and mention I have a wife people assume I’m a man, so I always just clarify now lol

👏👏👏

Standing at a bus stop about a year ago, guy walks past, looks at me and stops. Walked back to me and went "Heyyyy baby!" looking me up and down with a creepy smile.
I sharply turned my head the other direction and looked away, clearly ignoring him. He walked back into my eye line, got close to my face and said "fucking bitch". He stormed off.

Fucking psychopath. 🙄

I've had a man 'helping' me reverse. He was waving his arms erratically as if something was wrong with him. I stopped, got out and asked if everything was ok? When he said he was just helping me reverse, I said it would be helpful if he could stand on the pavement. Which he did. I then reversed perfectly ignoring him. He actually waited till I got out of the car, looking well chuffed, waiting for my undying gratitude and thanks. I just smiled and walked away. Wanker.

Eta YANBU @Siblingsadness both men well out of order.

Where do you live OP, because I've never encountered scenarios like that, let alone 2 in one morning?

Me either! Mind you no word of a lie I've a blistering tongue and would 100% snap back.