Men whistling: Rant!

[SophieKaczynsky]

I know this subject has been mentioned many a time on MN but I am fucked off with men whistling or humming loudly in public places and basically dominating the place with their tuneless shit.

I've just been into a small charity shop and a man was walking round it whistling so loudly, and it was the kind of shrill whistle that hurts your ears! He also, in typical dominant male style, kept leaning across me to look at things rather than looking at another rack until I'd finished, which meant he was whistling in my ear!

So, I started whistling too. Very loudly and even more shrill and tuneless than his whistle! He glared at me in shock, and the whole shop turned to look, but he stopped fucking whistling!

I'm going to do it more often!

Oh my god I love you. I HATE whistling with a passion and I’m going to start doing this too!

Carry matches and drop a lit one into the pocket of each whistling dickhead you encounter.

It's the only reasonable approach imo.

Whistling drives me absolutely bonkers, I don’t know why, but I wish I’d been there to see that! Brilliant!

It's always fucking men doing it isn't it! I don't think I've ever come across a woman whistling her way around a shop

You’re right, I’ve never ever heard a woman whistling out and about. Only men. They do it in shops, out on the street, at work. And in my experience, if it’s not whistling, they quite often randomly sing a few lines of a song. WTF?

Oh god yes, the singing a random line repeatedly from a song pisses me off too! A man in a shop was once singing the same line repeatedly from that song Ciao Adios I'm done or whatever it's called

Well done you!

Sophie my FiL does that singing one line over and over. I think he has a combo of living alone (widowed many years ago) and ear worm?

There's a couple of men in my office at work who do the tuneless whistling. Plus the single line of song, over and over. It makes me stabby. The very few female members of our team don't ever do this shit (there's only 5 of us anyway).
I've taken to saying "No!" audibly when they do it, like you would to a toddler. Seems to work!

I quite like whistling if it’s done tunefully.

I love you, OP.

My mate (who has zero tolerance for men taking up space, and zero care about getting judged in public) does this but rather than competitive whistling, she starts singing at the top of her lungs while looking straight into the offending man's eyes. She is a brilliant singer and it definitely shuts them up.

Very very strange and embarrassing for the person shopping with her though

My DD whistles (incredibly) loudly in public too - she’s 8. Personally I quite like it and quite often join in. Of course tuneless whistling is shit, but when it’s in tune I don’t see the problem.
The leaning in to your space is different and would make me stabby too.

Well done, OP and others for their appropriate retaliation to unwanted whistlers.

Mind you, I've been known to whistle, though more often sing quite lustily, nursery rhymes as I pushed or carried DD when she was small.

I hope that doing this for the entertainment or pacification of babies and small children is allowable? 'The animals came in two by two' was my piece de (no) resistance. I'd have been perfectly happy for anyone else to join in, of course.

I have found my people! Whistling is AWFUL.

Can we be friends?

There's a particular type of performance whistling (sort of very prim, warbling, complicated) which makes me want to scream with rage.

I love this, well done!!!!!!

I don't particularly mind whistling, but I still think it's hilarious that he looked so shocked and annoyed when you were only doing what he'd been doing

Dear gods! Is it just whistling in public? I'm always whistling, singing and humming (tunelessly) at home, plus have awful earworm habit of singing the same line or phrase repeatedly.

To think some people would like to set me on fire because of it!
(I'm sure it was 'just a joke' but still a slight overreaction imo!)

Well done! Whistling makes my skin crawl, I can't stand it. I used to get off the bus before my stop and walk if someone started whistling. Its like nails down a chalkboard to me!!

Well done OP! When a man did it on the train I started clicking my fingers along moving from side to side and grinning at him. He stopped when I asked DS to come in on vocals. Some men are such boring entitled cunts aren't they?

Whistling is really a way of taking up space - the audio equivalent of manspreading. It's a kind of territory marking too. Well done for challenging him OP!

Dear gods! Is it just whistling in public?

No, it's just men whistling in public.

@katemuff

Well done OP! When a man did it on the train I started clicking my fingers along moving from side to side and grinning at him. He stopped when I asked DS to come in on vocals. Some men are such boring entitled cunts aren't they?

I love you @katemuff

Not sure I would be as bothered about this as you, but this made me laugh XD

*So, I started whistling too. Very loudly and even more shrill and tuneless than his whistle! He glared at me in shock, and the whole shop turned to look, but he stopped fucking whistling!

I'm going to do it more often!*

My DS1 burbles - he'll just be wandering around, or sitting in the car, making these little tunes (wordless singing, not whistling). And to a certain extent, it's fine, and he's not doing it on purpose. But if I'm trying to concentrate on a right hand turn, or if DS2 has had a long day, then I ask him to stop (he mindlessly starts again a minute later, and I ask him to stop again :) )

He wouldn't do it walking around a shop, because I've raised him to be aware of other people (family don't quite count the same, which is fair enough). Didn't these people have parents to teach them to hold it in when in public and potentially disturbing others?