Responding to the responses to my response

[andrewducker]

With advice from octopoid_horror, surliminal, random_redhead and others, here are some more questions. There seemed to be a feeling that I wasn't placing things into a wider context, getting the other side of the story, etc. and hopefully this will get it out of my head so I can stop annoying you with more thoughts on the subject and return to pictures of kittens snuggling up to squid.

[Poll #1223236]

Comments

[andrewducker]

The year I lived in a horrible street near Bannockburn pretty much everyone I lived with was attacked between the flat and the local corner shop, except me.

No, I don't know why I wasn't either.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I posted a poll like this before, I think, but I can't remember when I posted it and am not searching through several years of entries :-D

[cdave]

To be fair to the stats, my being attacked thing had nothing to do with any of the options above. Technically it was height.

They weren't making any sort of remarks about me, they were just a bunch of bored teenagers who'd torn some bits of wood of something and were swing them around trying to look tough. They just didn't realise how tall I was, and failed to swing it over my head, bopped me one, and grazed me just enough to draw blood.

[redshira.livejournal.com]

I didn't answer the last poll because I hardly ever leave the house these days (due to illness). I imagine I'd experience a lot more hassle if I were able to go outdoors on a regular basis.

[davesangel.livejournal.com]

There's also this situation which is relevant because it's something I've had expereience with recently and random_redhead made reference to 'how many men have been falsely accused of rape?':

There are men who have seriously mistreated and/or emotionally abused (or worse) women and in order to try and escape the guilt for this and come out of it all smelling like roses, they claim to their friends that the woman whom they've abused has been spreading lies about them trying to rape her. Because in their view, if you bring rape into the equation, then you must be telling the truth - it's such an extreme and serious crime that if they claim they've falsely been accued of it then poor them, and the woman must be a huge psycho to make up something so obviously untrue about them.

To my friends (the decent ones), this just defies belief because what sort of sick wanker would make such shit up about a woman just so that his remaining friends will believe him over the woman who has been treated like dirt already? Rape is not something you lie about just to seem all holier than thou and try and win some weird psychological battle...

[terminalmalaise.livejournal.com]

Sex -- No one's ever hassled me for being male. (Edit: Nor hassled with sexual taunts, if that's what was meant.)

The way I dress -- Nope, but I've always been a jeans and plain shirts for all seasons kind of person, so nothing remarkable there. I don't look rich and I don't look poor.

My hair colour/style -- Blonde hair halfway down my back, but never a negative comment on it by strangers. I'm in NY, so it's not all that unusual.

My ethnicity -- Caucasion, quite pale. Nothing here either.

My weight -- Pretty slender, slightly below average height. Nothing here.

The subculture I belong to -- Geek? Not that glaringly obvious.

Sexuality -- As far as I know, I don't set off gaydar in strangers. Have never heard a taunt having to do with being perceived as straight.

Religion -- Atheist, nominally brought up Catholic. Not advertised publicly.

Age -- 31 nowadays. Nothing ever here.

I mostly just blend in, invisible. Grade school was a little different, but those were kids I knew, and kids are just mean.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Also, I think either some people don't notice these kind of things, or else some people give off an aura of "hassle me, go on you know you want to."

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Much better data - already clear it's more a subcuilture`thing for guys, more a sex thing for girls (which is what i'd have suspected but good to see it empirically.)

Ok people don't seem to be confused by the usage of "sex"!

After seeing the slut_hazard`thing, maybe theer should be a pol for have you been sexualy harassed on the Internet :(

Shouldn't you be at a bbq?!

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

btw it would be also be interesting to know why people got attacked. I imagine you're connecting it to sexual/hate attacks, given context, but the one time I've been attacked (not leaving marks, hence no vote) it was for money (my handbag) and I imagine there's a lot of that for woman. Stats seem to show that young black men are the most attacked and also the most attacking - street violence is in reality more a guy drink and testosterone thing, than a sex from women thing - but that's not what gets projected through the media. (No I'm not entirely sure what point I'm making either except that the people who ought to be most worried about violence generally are not the ones who do, and vice versa.)

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

I wrote a thing that got too long for the text box:

Hmm. I still think "because of the patriarchy" is missing.

I don't know why I've been hassled when I have, or why attacked, for that matter, so I answered for the things that were mentioned when it happened, which in my case is usually my gender, the size of my breasts, and either of those in combination with wearing pretty much anything at all. I've been hassled for being queer on the rare occasions that's been evident to people. I've also been hassled on the presumption, I suppose, that I am straight - when I was pregnant, a lot of people went for the "I know what you've been doing" line.

When I said I'd been physically attacked "in the street" - on one occasion in an actual street, though in that case the mark left was just from having my breast pinched, and on one occasion in another public place.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Social class (perceived or actual) is a factor too.

Depending where you are, it's sometimes hard to separate from some of the other factors though.