Do you think random horrible arseholes are getting worse?

[Designless]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/17/men-push-abuse-women-street-stranger

I do think the days of most men not wanting to seem violent towards women in public seem to be sadly on the wane. A guy squared up to me, blocking my path, in the street recently after a minor disagreement (his dog jumped on me and I asked him to keep it under control). I said "excuse me are you trying to threaten me with your posture?" and he didn't reply so I said "ok then I'm going to call the police now" and he walked away, staring behind him. He looked pretty normal, like a guy with a job and maybe friends and family.

But maybe these guys have always been around and it's just bloody lucky if you dodge them.

Where can we live that's peaceful and far from them??

You’re right. They probably can’t be bothered to vote at all. Probably can’t even spell their own names

Plenty in Scotland I imagine. Don't make it an English thing.

I worry that Reform getting in will massively impact on women’s rights. We will be put firmly in our place.

But then I also worry about the amount of men arriving in this country (and Europe) who think western women and girls are fair game for sexual assaults. That was Labour/Tory.

I have previously been worried about transgender women’s rights trampling over women’s rights. (Labour/Tory)

Females are the victims whatever political party is in place.

We make up half the population, we pay taxes, we fought for women’s rights. But slowly but surely we are regressing - already women are changing their behaviour to avoid, go undetected, dress down. We should be angry. We need to push back.

You are living in a bubble, I'm afraid.

I think this is the problem we are facing now. These men have always existed but now there are thousands of Andrew Tate wannabes online telling them that their hatred is entirely justified and that they are being wronged, every day. They sit online and just gorge on all this hate and then go out in the real world and take it out on the women they encounter. No one stands up to them because people are justifiably frightened of what will happen to them and there are no consequences. Rape has almost become de-criminalised reporting and conviction rates are so low. It is really frightening, the content they consume - I think life is getting a lot worse for women. I follow a guy on instagram who pulls apart these misogynistic content creators for laughs but the hatred and the distorted view of women and girls is really scary. What's worse is there are so many of them.

Yeah I have heard that pushing random women is part of this movement (reminding us that they're stronger and therefore... So? It's a digital world and nobody needs aggro twats for anything any more).

Imagine finding your power by pushing a small woman. How pathetic.

To be fair, it's plausible that these men are equally aggressive towards other men.

I can believe that. There is definitely a sizable minority of men who seem to view every action of theirs through the lens of reinforcing their self perceived 'alpha male' status. Its really quite pathetic. I am a man, I have had random blokes try and barge past me down the supermarket, while out running, on public transport, usually when there is enough space for both parties to step to one side without bother. I used to play semi pro rugby, am 6ft and still in shape, so good luck barging me out the way yet some guys still want to take a route one approach, its kind of weird and pointless. A good friend of mine is an absolutely huge ex international back rower and he seems to get a disproportionate amount of hassle off random guys who want to prove how hard they are. Why try and pick a fight with a bloke twice the size of you who's former day job was as a finely tuned athlete tackling equally enormous men?

It was late when I posted last night about my daughter’s experience. So to add, this is a “thing” fuelled by men who hate women. There are a lot of posts on social media (and indeed a journo from I think The Guardian wrote about it happening to her). It has a name in Japan that translates to “bumping man”. It’s bloody disgusting not to mention dangerous and has happened even to heavily pregnant women. Another woman I read of, was nearly shoved into a canal. It’s terrifying that there are so many men out there willing to do this to demonstrate their power over women.

And fucking stupid I mean I could come up behind the same blokes and crack them on the back of the head and "win" by their own weird measure. It hardly proves superiority just that the guy is more of a psycho than a normal person would ever think to anticipate.

Don’t forget the famous Putney Bridge incident when a male jogger deliberately pushed a woman over. She was nowhere near him, he ran over to her. She fell into the path of a bus in the road but the driver managed to brake to avoid hitting her. Captured on cctv. And the bus cctv. Nobody arrested. A clear assault. Attempted manslaughter I would say.

I've only had abuse from male dog owners, I have to say, though I've seen women trying to pretend that their dogs haven't piddled.

I was in a reasonably posh hairdresser's in Edinburgh one time when an older woman's lapdog left a puddle incongruent with its size. I felt sorry for the trainee who had to clean it up.

I've seen it in Fife. Most of our men are not like that, but some are just awful. As I've said upthread, I've seen an upsurge of problems with younger men. Having said that, all the young lads at the local gym are genuinely delightful and a credit to their families, if that doesn't sound too twee.

I do recall once having problems with an aggressive wee nyaff in Great Western Road in Glasgow, 42 yrs ago and there was the time that a man tried to get into our flat in Southparks Avenue...Turned out that we were living in a former brothel.

You've just reminded me of the professor's son who brought his fist down on my head in the Russian Dept common room, purely because I'd defeated him in some kind of political argument. (Not our professor's son, I hasten to add.)

I was in Senior Honours; he was a first year, so only a teenager. Private school boy. Kelvinside Academy.

Nah, not really. Frequent shopper in Glasgow city centre. Live near a deprived area. Have lived through dv and I still don't recognise this epidemic in men intimidating/abusing random women

What about Wales and NI. England is NOT the UK. Tut tut

I was shoved by a bloke at a gig last year. He'd been looming over and brushing up against two young girls. I gave him the benefit of the doubt as he was very drunk and advised him to back off and give them some space. He apologised and agreed, but then carried on being a dick. When he moved slightly I moved into his space. I wouldn't let him back so he literally shoved me out the way with both hands. Security just moved him away but didn't kick him out! In hindsight I should have complained.

When I got (fairly regularly) flashed as a teen, I used to say “it’s a bit like a penis, only smaller”. Not quite the reaction they were hoping for. Of course now they can flash away in changing rooms til their heart’s content and just claim to be a woman.

Jesus I’d forgotten the man who punched me on the arm a few months ago!

We were at a kids soft play and there was one of those boxing arcade games. I was stood about 5 feet away? Chatting to the kids. All of a sudden searing pain in my arm- dickhead bloke, well over six feet had obviously punched the punchbag, and then carried on the momentum of the punch. I don’t think he hit me on purpose, but it was the exchange that shocked me.

me: “ow! Oh my god that really hurt! What on earth?!”
man: “what do you mean ow, I never touched you”
me: “what?? Do you think I’m making it up? Did I yell “ow” for fun?”
man: “well it’s your fault for standing there.”
me: “what?!”
man: “come on I barely touched you”
me: “oh so you DID hit me? That could have been a kids face” (it was about child head height he’d hit me)
man: “it’s your own fault”
me: “how is it my fault that you hit me?”

By this point I was really annoyed, his mates were getting arsey too, and the kids were getting worried, so I turned away and he fucked off - but not before I realised him and his knobhead mates were actually in the soft play without any children.

Its amazing that I’d forgotten that- and a sign of how often this shit is happening

Oh yes! how clever of you sweetie to have worked that out……

Sadly thus is my modus operandi. It sucks having to move out of the way to bullies but it's better imo than risking serious facial injury if one of them goes psycho.

The problem is I move too fast for these men, so I ended up weaving through them and inadvertently moving out of their way as they expect.