Catcalling is now a 'hate crime' - UK Police Force

Greentopia wrote: »

It's intimidating and makes a woman feel like a slab of meat to have her body commented on by a stranger. And it's never done by one person, it's always only said by a guy when he has the courage to do it because he's with a group of his mates (unless he's drunk) so it's intimidating and scary to have a group of guys laughing and jeering at their mate's remark (unless they call their friend out on their bad behaviour there and then, which I've never seen).

You have no idea what that situation is like unless you've been the victim of it. I have and it's horrible. I told the guy where to go and he got verbally aggressive and abusive with me. There's more to harassment than following someone as they move away. That's why I would support this law.

Yes, that's horrible. But as horrible as it is, it would be much more horrible if those guys didn't have the right to say those things for fear of being arrested or charged in court. You might not like it, but it's the truth. And if you want people to stop behaving like that in public, laws are not the answer. Education is. Offer to pay more in taxes to fund education and teachers rather than lawyers, courts and prisons to persecute people for saying horrible things to you.

Candie wrote: »

The target is misogynistic behaviour towards women, not civil conversation.

'Bend over and don't move til I'm done, bitch' - said to a friend of mine in a bar, out of the blue, would probably be a good example of what they mean.

'What time is the next 46a due?' - rather unlikely to result in a prosecution.

The first kind of encounter seems to be much more prevalent than people realise, I've been on the receiving end of that kind of horrible sexist stuff since I was 12 years old. I'd love it to stop.

I don't think anyone disagrees with this, it's all the grey in between which causes issues. This doesn't just mention threats or persistent harassment, it talks about

Especially for teenagers. It's been widely commented upon that being clumsy and making mistakes when chatting somebody up or having a crush on somebody is now likely to result in such intense vilification and accusations of being a creep of some kind, that a huge number of young teenagers of both genders are developing serious issues around confidence. And to be honest, I remember being able to see that first hand when I was an older kid in school doing my leaving cert - clumsiness and idiocy by younger lads has gone from being something that they get made fun of about, to something they get letters sent home about.

All that will ever result in is a generation of lads who are too afraid to respond to what might be flirting, lest they get it wrong and get accused of engaging in harassment.

To put this another way: The word "harassment" implies persistence. It falls massively outside the definition of the word, to apply it to the first instance of "unwanted attention" - in my day, that first instance was when you'd find out whether you'd correctly interpreted the situation or not, and if not, it would at most be a moment of embarrassment and blushing. I honestly fear that guys are now being asked to develop psychic powers to determine whether their crushes are reciprocated before they actually act on them.

Interesting suggestion: If we're going to create an environment in which guys can't make the first move without risking being horrendously misinterpreted, do we also need to simultaneously start encouraging women to make the first move as they won't risk getting in trouble with whoever is in authority if they f*ck it up?

Another suggestion: Should we create designated "hookup zones", where approaching somebody to hit on them or ask them out is acceptable, outside which it would be considered harassment?

Because without taking action like this, I don't see how anyone can actually approach somebody they like for the first time without risking it being considered "unwanted attention".

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Is that not what equality and diversity officer gets paid for in colleges ? Last one I heard about said she could not be racist or sexist as she was a woman of colour. :pac:

And she was white herself :eek:

darkpagandeath wrote: »

I like to see a study being done to even warrant such ridiculous sexist laws. As it's only mentioned misogyny.

How do you know if the laws are sexist or not?

Either they'll have to pass new laws - in which case we can't know that until we read what's published.

Or, they'll try to prosecute under existing laws - which would mean that either the existing laws are sexist (and we're a bit late to the party) or a judge will have to make a decision, and that can't be (or not be) sexist until it happens.