“He wants to do you up the arse” and pointed to his friend.
New Submission from Rosie
I am 26 and currently a PhD student. I have a crude story of street harassment.
It was in the market town of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England. (In the south east of England.)
This happened yesterday (22nd August, 2012), I had just left the cinema (movie theater) to pick up some tickets, it was afternoon.
As I was getting ready to cross the road, a man with a northern English accent says “He wants to do you up the arse” and pointed to his friend. They were only a small distance from me. There was nobody else nearby, which may have empowered him to say it.
When I looked at them in disgust he said to his friend “Oh sh*t, she’s looking” and LAUGHED. (?!?!?!) I suppose I was supposed to completely ignore this obscene abuse or be rendered utterly weak and impotent by the revelation.
Some men have absolutely no respect for women. They think we’re so weak and that they can say what they want to our faces and get away with it. Where do they learn such an unhealthy attitude? It makes me MAD! I also feel there may be class issues and region issues at play here. These northern men were not in work on a weekday afternoon. Do they hate middle class women from the South East of England? To them, do we represent everything they hate about the south of England AS WELL as being the inferior gender? Such an attitude wouldn’t surprise me at all.
One Response
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I appreciate that you were annoyed (as anyone would be!!), but I think it’s maybe a little prejudiced to say that they hate you because you are from the south- east and middle classed, and they where from the north. Of course I am not defending their actions at all, but I think they were more about ‘having a laugh’ (though at your expense), than expressing their hate for you due to class and regional issues. I think it’s apparent that comments and actions like this happen regardless of those issues. Money and where you live don’t automatically equal respect for women I’m afraid.