Comments on: Who are you talking to ?: Commentary on Verbal Harassment

By: Orville

Orville — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:14:18 +0000

Aulelia, have you ever heard of a Women’s Studies term called “The Georgaphy Of Fear?” I remember in my Women’s Studies classes my professor talked about the dangers women have in the public sphere during certain times of the day. The way that guy talked to you and your friend was totally unacceptable and very sexist. I often wonder sometimes how women handle men making cat calling remarks and all that stuff? It seems very scary?

By: Felicity Graham

Felicity Graham — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:58:34 +0000

At times when these men make such rude remarks it would be such a good thing as soon as they spoke they get slapped hard by an invisible hand or something.

By: Aisha

Aisha — Mon, 12 May 2008 20:18:28 +0000

Aulelia, I think the problem is that catcalling is such an accepted part of male behavior that they don’t even see anything wrong with it. They think women don’t mind. I remember once in college some friends and I started catcalling every guy that walked past just to see what would happen. They were SO uncomfortable. It was funny to me because they aren’t used to being on the receiving in terms of that behavior.

However, as lechatnoir said, it is much harder for a man who is being sexually harassed. I remembered at an old job where an older woman grabbed the butt of one of my male co-workers who was in his 20’s. He didn’t like it, but didn’t make a big fuss. It almost became a joke. But I remember thinking that if the roles had been reversed, it would have been a huge problem. It’s really not fair for men to be harassed either. I guess there is the assumption that men don’t mind sexual attention, or that they should be able to take care of themselves.

By: lechatnoir

lechatnoir — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:39:00 +0000

that particular quote was offensive, I don’t know exactly in which context it occured, did he try to “wrap it” in a joke ? I am just asking.

sexual harrassment and racist behaviour are quite difficult to prove. a comment can be dismissed as a joke at which point you paid the expenses twice :
-for “not noticing ” it was allegedly a joke aaaand!
-for knowing you are the real target but you are helpless and you HAVE to get over it and the worst of all ( its no biggie).

a lot of innuendos you can peep them through a little slip ( calculated or not) or just vibes .I guarantee you that as a black man, even if i get harrassed by some white chick it will be my manhood that will be questionned first. Its “common” knowledge that we catcall white women so people will not even want to hear my side of the story, they will look at me cross-eyed. I worked in 3 places in my teens where 30 something wowen will “see if those trousers fit on me” or “fix my belt” and this happened more then once every time it was just a few seconds before the shift starts.By the end of the summer I had turned a blind eye far too many times and the comments about the size of my dick were just a part of the routine talk. You think I can talk about this without people thinking ” why didn’t you just get that p***y ?” or ” you are so full of yourself” , we have to keep that for ourselves.