To have been using my phone while walking on the pavement

[untiloneofuscaves]

I’ll hold my hands up and say this is one of those things that I know is really annoying.

I was walking on the outside of the pavement answering an email because I’ve not had a chance all day. I wasn’t weaving and there was probably 5 foot of space to my right.

Two young men (probably mid-20s) saw me and walked right towards me. One bumped his shoulder into me and went “watch where you’re going you fat fuck” and the other said “yeah watch where you’re going fat fucker”. As they walked past me one shouted “fat fuckers like her shouldn’t be allowed to live” and both kept yelling fat fucker as I walked away.

AIBU to think this really isn’t justified?

It’s nothing to do with your actions, they are abusive horrible men who take any opportunity to be abusive horrible men.

Yes it’s annoying when someone is walking on the pavement and not paying attention but it never justifies a personal hateful insulting and offensive comment like they made.

As someone who until very recently was a lifelong ‘fat fucker’ officially morbidly obese from the age of 11 - 41, I have encountered many men like this who shout weight related insults out of van/car windows or randomly as they walk as they pass women on the street, I can confirm you did nothing to deserve it, the deficiency sits firmly with them.

People like you are one of the reasons I feel unsafe riding a bicycle - you might step into my path. I've only just got full movement in my left ankle after the kind lady who phone walked between cars into the back of my (stationary) bicycle at a junction and sent me flying. Imagine if the lights had changed?
It wasn't life or death you looked at your phone
You could have stopped to look at your phone
You could have gone in a coffee shop sat down and looked at your phone
You could have gone home and looked at your phone.
It has nothing to do with your weight IMHO, they were just looking for something extra to peg your inattention on (that perhaps you might hear above your absorption in your phone.

Please don't do it again.

Whole world has gone phone mad.

This - and even if you have the space. You can stop and do what you need to do and then carry on.

But they were rude arses and wouldn't have said it to a bloke.

They were horrible rude twats.
But you were doing something that enrages people.
Anyone walking straight towards me fixated on their phone are coming up for a bumpy stop.
Look where you're going.

Dont use phone while walking.
You asking forit to be snatched. Stop and go up to a wall for protection be awarex

This doesn't give you the moral high ground you think it does - so if someone hasn't seen you for whatever reason, but you have seen them, you think it's ok to just walk into them?

I sign, if I'm walking along talking to a friend I will not be staring straight ahead, my attention is shared between my surroundings and my conversation. If I made a mistake would you walk into me? What about if I'm pushing a pram and my attention is on my baby for a second? Or is it only those you think are committing social faux pas that you would potentially hurt?

Hey? I’ve never felt the need to do this, not even in major cities!

So if you saw them directly walking into your path you didn’t think you move an inch to the side so you didn’t bash into each other?

I will never, ever, yield to male aggression.

I watched a woman who was staring down at her phone almost walk into a lamppost once. She noticed & veered at the last minute when I’d just decided to say something.

I saw a parent trip over a buggy in the school playground and land on the toddler in it, because they were staring at their phone.

I don’t think it had anything to do with being on your phone. It was two misogynist men using their power to intimidate and degrade you. People walking two abreast on the pavement is as bad or worse than waking on the phone. They probably would have behaved as abysmally either way as not moving over is a power play for jerks like that. Sorry it happened to you.

And none of this is relevant to my situation, where two men deliberately crossed into my path to shout abuse at me.

It’s just such a sad indictment of society. No matter what women do they’ll be judged and abused.

And yet you needed to ask if their abusive behaviour was justified.

Absolutely vile behaviour. It doesn’t matter what you were doing and that you were in your phone. Even if you had bumped into them, there absolutely no excuse for someone to speak to you like this. I mean, watch your phone use when walking for your own safety but do not let the behaviour of these two arseholes make you feel like you were at fault.

An increasing number of young men like to barge female pedestrians. There have been a couple of threads in FWR about it. A very healthy-looking, well-dressed and well-spoken twenty-something did it to me on a wide, sparsely populated, pedestrianised square in my sedate little city. When I managed to keep my footing, he delivered a load of verbal abuse.

He seemed to think I was walking where he wanted to walk (he rammed me from the side). I do play patriarchy chicken, but was completely off my guard that day - and clearly failing in my duty, as a Useless Old Woman, to observe and avoid the intended pathways of any walking men!

Remember the man who pushed a young, female jogger in front of a moving bus? There've also been a few news stories about men pushing women down stairs and escalators.

Misogyny is still not an 'aggravating factor' in UK law.

I don’t think this is going the way @untiloneofuscaves expected…

For the record: their behaviour was abhorrent. Your behaviour was irritating and antisocial. It did not deserve their abuse but it does not make your irritating absorption OK.

They were being unreasonable in their insults, but for fuck's sake, pay attention to where you're walking and not your damn phone.

If you're riding your bike on the pavement, you're breaking the law and YOU are the danger.

Your story about the person who knocked you off your bike at a junction is irrelevant to OP's situation.

You must be unique then because I’ve never encountered a phone caller who had idea at all about where they are in the pavement, who is around them, or whether they are walking in a straight line or not. So well done on your unique abilities.

people walking and texting are, as you say in your op @untiloneofuscaves very very annoying.

As for the two men, they were really really rude and aggressive, no need for that at all. That goes with without saying.

I thought that poster meant she was waiting on the road / a cycle path & the woman was crossing without looking properly.

So did I 🙂 OP was on the pavement.

But you’re ok with them walking into you?

So I’m to blame?