That study about men expecting women to physically move out the way...

[WorkingBling]

... I thought it was an American thing. "In England, if nothing else, men have that naturally English chivalry thing going on" I thought.

Hahaha. I am 36 weeks pregnant. Bad back. Belly the size of a small whale. My ability to make quick direction changes is completely gone and frankly, even if I could turn sideways in an effort to make myself smaller, it would be a complete waste of time as clearly I'd actually double the space I take up.

And do you know what? I get bashed by a man at least twice a day on my way into and out of the City - today I had three bashes from grown men and one from a teenager where, even though the father was giving his three children a hard time for being a bit boisterous, he saw the teenager smack into me but said nothing about that to either one of us.

I've also had a few men staring me down as they approach, making it clear they expect me to move out of the way quickly. And when they do bash me, I don't even get that instinctive English apology where everyone says sorry.

The weirdest thing is that I bet some of these men would let me go first through a door or possibly give me a seat on the tube. But when walking on the pavement, I am expected to move. And move fast.

I can't believe I had never noticed it before.

Hmm. Thinking about it, I don't ever move out of the way for runners. In my view it's their responsibility to take evasive action around slower pedestrians. Re the oncoming runner - drop your shoulder and carry on, taking half a step to one side. He won't do it again. Or, stop dead, make him do the same.

My anecdata - I was once jogging towards and elderly couple, and moved to one side. He carried on. She suddenly jumped in front of me and shouted 'Boo!', like a 4 year old. If I hadn't taken further evasive action, I'd have flattened her. Some people.

I do OBVIOUSLY take evasive action around pedestrians. That doesn't apply in these instances though. One was actively blocking the pavement to everyone, the other was running directly into me.

I have only read p.1 yet (I will RTFT in a mo) but I have noticed it in the capital city I work in too - often foreign teenagers, or often middle aged men. But not unknown for it to be women either.

What I have taken to doing is stopping dead if it looks like someone is not going to move aside. I am usually on the building side where I can't step aside, and it is often larger groups going across the path, so I would bash a few of them if I tried avoidance measures. So I just stop walking and then THEY have bashed into ME rather than me getting abuse for having bashed into them.

But I have days when it does just annoy me too - and occasional days where I get bull headed and put my head down, stay in the inside, and walk on as I can't miss my train.