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Do men need a license to be allowed socialise (MOD NOTE IN OP)

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,147 ✭✭✭✭anewme


    Stop saying wolf whistle.

    I referred to whistling and commenting on women EXACTLY as Labre34 outlined above. So stop trying to downplay what is harassment.

    I can see street harassment designated a crime, Helen McEntee is clearly going to have to act with this new proposal she is putting together.

    Time will tell on this one I think.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 515 ✭✭✭TheTruth89


    Thats a very generalized hallow argument that falls flat when you loook abit closer its a great "buzz" response that will get others to agree with you but its simply not true, the lad thats wolf whistling or the boys being boys mentality are not even remotely related to going out and murdering someone to try and link the two is just nonsense.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    I’d argue it’s already probably taboo.

    And I am sure males who did it have likely matured and grown out of this way.



  • Posts: 9,005 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I got hospitalised from an assault in Cork City 4 years ago. Culprits caught on CCTV and known to the guards. 4 years and no arrests made. Guards initially told me they were all looking at mandatory sentences. So I imagine if guards can't be bothered to arrest people for assault, the wolf whistlers will be safe.

    Wolf-whistling is bad/cringe. I'd call my mates out on such behaviour.



  • Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The media will comment on anything that is current and usually have an agenda of their own, to have as many listeners as possible



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    ok, are you advocating for a whistle in the direction of women to be deemed a crime?

    you seem to be changing goal posts.

    harassment is a broad area.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,803 ✭✭✭standardg60


    I was in a country town night club one night and got chatting to a local girl. In the middle of it a guy just walked up and made a grab for her breast, i literally had to grab his hand to stop him. I asked her about it and she said it was just a normal experience for her on a night out. I was frankly astounded, i've never seen such behaviour before.

    It was a few years ago but if this is the sort of thing that still goes on then i can certainly understand the current outcry. It certainly never happened within my friend's circles.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 196 ✭✭SamStonesArm


    Few months ago there was the twitter feminists banging on about a man holding a door open for a woman is sexist because they are saying that women are weak and can't do stuff for themselves, now they're saying , if anyone says something to me will you please stick up for me and possibly get a slap in the chops for it because I'm a delicate flower.



    Now, the ads are over so I'm going to leave ye fight away 🤣



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,037 ✭✭✭growleaves


    Just as I predicted, the legislation will have nothing to do with protecting women from violent men.

    Making street harassment illegal will probably make women *feel* safer, but it won't make them safer.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,147 ✭✭✭✭anewme


    Seriously, are you for real?

    People have spoken out about it in the past week, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands of them.

    Street harassment is huge issue is an issue for women daily.

    You seem to think that once women are not murdered, then its ok to harass them a little bit. It's not.

    Boys will be boys? Excuses, excuses.



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  • Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    i also heard someone say you should not open a door for someone in a wheelchair unless they asked



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,147 ✭✭✭✭anewme


    No, it is you who are changing goal posts and being deliberately obtuse.

    Street Harassment is exactly what Labre34 outlined above. I suggest you read that post. Slowly, so it sinks in.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    You again changing the goal posts.

    you are being disingenuous here

    I never defended harassment. Harassment is a broad area.

    I only ever specifically discussed wolf whistling.

    so, do you want this listed as a crime? Added into the crime of harassment?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 17,412 ✭✭✭✭elperello


    Of course you would use discretion but in general a friendly salute is usually ok.



  • Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    how would they prove who the whistle was aimed at



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 196 ✭✭SamStonesArm


    Wouldn't be surprised nowadays.

    I'm lucky I'm a fecking hermit , so many rules needed for going outside haha.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 515 ✭✭✭TheTruth89


    So women's plan is to put there faith in men "changing" to help them feel more safe? if your constantly in a state of "is this guy going to kill me" then of course your going to go around your daily life in a state of fear and paranoia and because of that then perceive any sort of male behavior as threatening its like a self fulfilling prophecy.


    Why don't women campaign for self defense or the right to carry pepper spray or something and take an active role in there own protection if they feel so threatened on a daily basis by men.


    Realistically what happened here is an innocent woman was murdered by a lunatic....she was probably picked because he knew she was a defenseless easy target, now you have people projecting wolf whistling and male nonsense behavior into the same bracket or as precursor to murder. its just nonsense.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,147 ✭✭✭✭anewme


    Go back and read my first post on the thread yesterday. It is very clear. Whistling, commenting, which is exactly what street harassment is and clearly described from the thread yesterday and from Labre's post on this thread. You cant isolate bits of it and say, well, that bit is harmless, but this bit isnt. I think you described it all as "banter".

    Its harassment, all of it. Whether you acknowledge it or not is up to you Walshb.

    Now, I don't really think there's anything else to say on it, the posts here are clear enough and people can come to their own conclusion.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    That’s fair enough.

    look, I don’t want to get into a back and forth petty argument. Ultimately, we all should be on the same team.

    To advocate safety for all of us. There’s just so many areas and views and situations to consider, that we’re bound to bang heads from time to time. I understand you are coming from a side of concern. As am I.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,037 ✭✭✭growleaves


    Ultimately the government are turning themselves into a giant HR Department for the ordinary person, but they won't give out tough prison sentences to violent criminals - now or ever.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,237 ✭✭✭Pussyhands


    The whole "it's a mans problem" doesn't make sense to me. Take Graham Dwyer for example. Even a man was responsible for another mans actions, how would anyone have been able to change him? He's a nut job.

    After confiding in McShea about his stabbing fetish three years into their relationship, Dwyer began to bring a kitchen knife to bed and pretended to stab her during sex, though never did.


    The relationship ended because McShea was so concerned at Dwyer’s behaviour and bad temper that she moved back to Donegal with her son. She is now married and works as an environmental health inspector.


    Sources familiar with his life when at college said there was no indication of his interest in BDSM or his stabbing fetish. “He was fairly charming and he was popular; he could turn it on,” said one source.




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    Men do protect women. Every day of the week.

    hey, I’ll probably have the feminists on me for this, but it’s our role to.

    It’s part of our DNA and evolution..



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,307 ✭✭✭amacca


    The problem with this afaic is twofold

    If you are saying the small percentage of men that would hassle women (and indeed other men, the kind of cretins I would view through the collective lens of belonging to social grouping "scumbag") in public need to step up then I agree ....but and this is the rub, they ain't going to or at least it's unlikely in the vast majority of cases so they should be encouraged by visible policing, timely and proportinate consequences imo etc...something that does not seem to be on the menu for discussion.


    If you mean other men should step up and police them ( and that seems to be the particular flavour du jour Im getting) then that's moronic and disappointing that....that is the level of public discourse from commentators, they should know better imo)....its unintelligent, won't move towards solving any problem and passing the buck but hey maybe it plays well and is conducive to more airtime....in any event I feel I'm not associated or responsible for these pricks and if I did try to police them its highly likely I'd have a big dental bill at minimum...so men need to step up fails on any level I think it could be intended ....to my mind at least.


    That to me is the problem with the "men need to step up here" tosspottery...

    They don't, they shouldn't, it wouldn't work, law and order needs to step up....I don't doubt women go around feeling intimidated in certain public places and have to factor safety into a trip outside, I do too but I don't think the problem is down to the local 5 a side whatsapp groups culture of toxic masculinity.........I think it could be down in part to the culture of turning a blind eye to thugs and scumbags being thugs and scumbags in an uninhibited....for whatever reason and it might be worth considering that too.


    I'm not part of a group of leering, intimidating men looking for opportunities for intimidating the opposite sex as a I walk about and I don't appreciate being lumped into such a group....and I do feel the commentary I've heard this week seems to suggest this and isn't even remotely likely to change anything ....



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,798 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Once again the problem is one of different people trying to apply their own individual experience to the world as a whole.

    Some people don't want to interact with random strangers when they're out in public, others absolutely crave such interaction. Both things can be true at the same time without either side being right or wrong, but it's impossible to talk about this with such nuance at the moment.

    For the craic, during quarantine, I grew a great big bushy beard. Just because there was f*ck all else to do (and I lost a bet, in fairness, in which I foolishly agreed not to shave it until the nightclubs reopened - which was at the time supposed to be five weeks!) 

    Now, I got a lot of comments from random strangers about this as I wandered around my local town. I was described, by strangers often yelling from across the road, as looking like everyone from Jesus to Mick Foley (I still don't get the latter or see any resemblance but this was a more or less daily occurrence at one stage). Now me, personally? I'm an extraordinarily extroverted person and the era of social distance and not being able to mingle with strangers in nightclubs etc was abject hell for me - I'm talking, mental health crisis, suicidal ideation level hell. So these random comments from random strangers were something of a lifeblood during quarantine - any interaction at all with someone I didn't know was a gigantic compliment and something which put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.

    Now, I totally understand that others don't see things this way, introverted people in particular. They'd rather go about their day without interacting at all with strangers around them, and certainly without those strangers passing comment - even if those comments are positive. Personally I can't empathise - I can't even begin to imagine feeling that way, the more strangers who say hello to me or interact with me as I go about my day, the better - but I can sympathise because people are capable of saying, with words, that they don't want this.

    The issue arises when both sides either refuse to or are somehow genuinely unable to sympathise. In this debate, the lads defending it cannot seem to wrap their heads around the introverted perspective in which random comments from random strangers aren't an immediate and automatic day-brightening moment which makes one's day that bit less dull and boring than it was a minute before. Equally, however, those who condemn it are also either refusing to or unable to understand and accept that to some people, yes, it genuinely *is* unfathomable that a random compliment from a random stranger could be literally anything other than a moment in which the world was a little brighter and more colourful than it was a moment ago, when you were walking alone and nobody was talking to you.

    Until people can diplomatically discuss these fundamental differences in different types of people (FWIW, I'm an ENFP personality type and I'd hazard a guess that others who adore, rather than detest, random verbal interactions with total strangers probably share the E and the P on that scale as opposed to those with an I or J, respectively) this kind of conversation will always, always, always descend into an angry shouting match. Yes, those who perceive random approaches from strangers in public as "harassment" are valid in their feelings and have some right to go about their day without any such interactions - but equally, those for whom the world would be a bleak and boring place without being verbally approached by strangers shouldn't have to face the prospect of living in a world in which they know they'll never be approached in such a manner again because the introverted crowd have made it illegal.

    There has to be some kind of middle ground. The extremism constantly on display from both sides of this debate doesn't achieve anything, and never will.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,191 ✭✭✭screamer


    Not all men are violent. Most are not. Everyone male and female has the potential to be violent. Put in a corner, and in a kill or be killed situation, we all have it in us. Humans are the apex predator and we didn’t get there through being nice and peace loving. Thankfully the majority of us though, are. This male violence against women just waters it down, we are too accepting of violence full stop. The legal system needs a good overhaul. Self defence classes etc should be taught to everyone.

    This murder is an outrage. For years people have felt you’re safe in the light. This murder has taken away that sense of safety and shows us we can trust no one. People are angry, people are scared and shocked, people are sad. The whole system needs a rethink and violent criminals need the harshest punishment.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,063 ✭✭✭✭titan18


    Thing is it still shouldn't be accepted. Its not a Twitter commentator, it's someone on national radio saying it, and if he said it about any other group who are stereotyped for something, he'd have been destroyed. It shouldn't be acceptable to say something like that.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,803 ✭✭✭standardg60


    So you'd be glad to call out wolf whistling or inappropriate comments as part of that then?

    Who's to say that one individual witnessing such behaviour would gain the necessary gumption to go out and commit a rape or murder having harboured those thoughts in secret up to then?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,097 ✭✭✭✭walshb


    Yep. Justice system absolutely needs looking at.

    this killing has repulsed me, but so have many others. And now people seem to be all awake and active and ready to fight?

    only last week I am hearing Joe O’Reilly planning to go for a more free/open prison, and then hopefully release. This monster battered a young woman to death, and I actually think by 2030 he will be free. There is something sick with any society that allows this.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 515 ✭✭✭TheTruth89


    So you think wolf whistling or a comment would inspire someone to rape?



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 515 ✭✭✭TheTruth89


    There definitely needs to be more extreme punishments for more extreme crimes, our justice system is a joke its very lenient sickeningly so in some cases.


    The prisons need to be harsher aswell... some of em are boarding on holiday camps with the "luxuries" afforded to some prisoners it should be hard earned thru good consistent behavior and accessible to people that have committed lesser crimes.


    Some people should be just deemed beyond reform and treated accordingly.



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