It seems to be quite a common thing on the internet, where a women will talk about frequent harassment out and about, from men. Someone will say "oh, it must be an isolated incident, it couldn't happen several days a week, now?" And you will find a chorus of women asserting that it does happen, and it happens frequently.
I was thinking about how to increase awareness of the issue, and also why on earth some people think its okay to be flirtatious in public to people they don't know. Although I suppose it boils down to the idea that men don't realise that they can be seen as a threat, and that they can be seen as scary. I was thinking as well, its one of those things where if you ask 100 women out, one of them is bound to say yes, its the scattergun approach to initiating sexual contact, and I suppose it doesn't occur to them that their behaviour is threatening, because they were asking/checking if the other person was interested in them, and if sex is a possibility.
If more people were aware of this issue, would it reduce it?
Harassment isn't flirtation (and flirtation isn't harassment). livredor recently referred to street harassment as "dominance displays", which I agree with. Of course no one is actively thinking, "a woman, hurrah! A chance to assert my social power!" but that is what's going on I would say most of the time.
I was thinking more that the men were considering their actions to be flirting, not harassment. However I think dominance displays is a really interesting way to look at it.
I was at a conference recently, and one of the presenters is doing research into faces. So far they have established that people can accurately identify personality* from faces. They are currently looking into doing something similar with chimps (being the closest primate to us). And they found something interesting to do with dominance and extroversion. I can't remember what it was specifically, but it looks like humans don't have "dominance" as a trait (where chimps do), but in humans it might look like it relates to extroversion.
I was thinking that harassing someone in the street wouldn't be typical of an introvert (I know I'm generalising), but I can see how it builds into the idea that its a dominance display.
What's the appropriate response to a male displaying dominance if you're a women? I don't want to "just ignore it" but I don't want to get into a confrontation either. It seems to be a no win situation (I'm not saying that it's the woman's responsibility, but I can only change my behaviour, I can't change theirs).
*Using the "Big 5 Personality Traits", Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. They had the participants who were involved in the pictures complete personality questionnaires. Then they had participants rate the personality of the face.
The stuff in that post comes across as the kind of thing I've seen intended as flirting. The problem being that the recipient cannot tell whether it's supposed to be flirting or harassment, and they shouldn't have to deal with it randomly on the way to work in any case.
I do agree that a lot of street harassment is just intended to be a display of power - making fun of people because they enjoy making them uncomfortable.
I really don't know what the right response is. Fortunately, I just don't get that hassle, maybe because I don't live in a big city, maybe I'm just neither 'attractive enough' nor 'ugly enough' to attract attention/mockery. I am glad I don't, cos it means I don't have all the horrible fears it generates, which must just be shit to live with.
I did think a little bit about such stuff wandering back to the tube in London a few Friday nights ago because of my broken hand - if someone grabbed it even casually, or I had to deflect a stumbling drunk it would bloody hurt and I couldn't punch anyone (not that I usually think about punching people yo understand - at east not any more!). Which is daft cos even my best attempt at physical violence would be pretty useless due to lack of size and weight.
Do smaller/slightly-built/injured/disabled guys have the same fears?
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It seems to be quite a common thing on the internet, where a women will talk about frequent harassment out and about, from men. Someone will say "oh, it must be an isolated incident, it couldn't happen several days a week, now?" And you will find a chorus of women asserting that it does happen, and it happens frequently.
I was thinking about how to increase awareness of the issue, and also why on earth some people think its okay to be flirtatious in public to people they don't know. Although I suppose it boils down to the idea that men don't realise that they can be seen as a threat, and that they can be seen as scary. I was thinking as well, its one of those things where if you ask 100 women out, one of them is bound to say yes, its the scattergun approach to initiating sexual contact, and I suppose it doesn't occur to them that their behaviour is threatening, because they were asking/checking if the other person was interested in them, and if sex is a possibility.
If more people were aware of this issue, would it reduce it?
no subject
no subject
I was at a conference recently, and one of the presenters is doing research into faces. So far they have established that people can accurately identify personality* from faces. They are currently looking into doing something similar with chimps (being the closest primate to us). And they found something interesting to do with dominance and extroversion. I can't remember what it was specifically, but it looks like humans don't have "dominance" as a trait (where chimps do), but in humans it might look like it relates to extroversion.
I was thinking that harassing someone in the street wouldn't be typical of an introvert (I know I'm generalising), but I can see how it builds into the idea that its a dominance display.
What's the appropriate response to a male displaying dominance if you're a women? I don't want to "just ignore it" but I don't want to get into a confrontation either. It seems to be a no win situation (I'm not saying that it's the woman's responsibility, but I can only change my behaviour, I can't change theirs).
*Using the "Big 5 Personality Traits", Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. They had the participants who were involved in the pictures complete personality questionnaires. Then they had participants rate the personality of the face.
no subject
I do agree that a lot of street harassment is just intended to be a display of power - making fun of people because they enjoy making them uncomfortable.
no subject
I did think a little bit about such stuff wandering back to the tube in London a few Friday nights ago because of my broken hand - if someone grabbed it even casually, or I had to deflect a stumbling drunk it would bloody hurt and I couldn't punch anyone (not that I usually think about punching people yo understand - at east not any more!). Which is daft cos even my best attempt at physical violence would be pretty useless due to lack of size and weight.
Do smaller/slightly-built/injured/disabled guys have the same fears?