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

Expecting a man to be able to do so is exactly the kind of gendered expectations notAMember was complaining about.

As an unfit middle-aged man with no combat training, if a gang of feral youths (or even one aggressive motorist as described earlier on the thread) decide to hassle me, I'm likely to be in far more trouble than a woman they wolf-whistle at: she'll get offended, intimidated and scared maybe they'd even go so far as to grope her. I'd likely end up in A&E.

By all means compliment someone you know.

A stranger, maybe not.

You might think "great tits" is a compliment and the receiver might not. (I'm not suggesting that's what you would say by they way)

For example whistling: Walshb said he'd be chuffed to be whistled at and another lad said he would assume women would take it as a compliment, but anyone I know would deem it harassment and unwelcome), so someone's compliment is someone elses insult.

So as the lad said, maybe just say nothing and respect eveyone's boundaries.

Well let's try and dispell some of your cynicism around the men of boards.ie: I 100% agree with you on making all schools co-ed and agree that our justice system is in need of serious overhauling.

And for nuance, I'd agree that sentences for violent crimes should be longer but would add to that view that our prison system also needs far more focus on reducing recidivism (and investment to that end). There's also the issue of sexism in the disparity between convictions and sentencing of men and women but that view might lead us to another argument so I'll stop while I'm ahead!

My other half used a term I hadn't heard before earlier "grief-standing" and it seems a very apt description of a lot of the behaviour we're seeing on social media around this tragedy. I've seen tweets accusing others of posing for selfies with full lighting setups at the vigils and pretty outlandish claims from people "not being able to sleep for crying" over the case when they had no idea who Aisling Murphy was this time last week. It should be easy to dismiss such attention seeking behaviours but instead the media seems more focused on these individuals and the anti-male views that so many of them are expounding than on having a national conversation about how we can improve public safety or reduce our society's (already fairly low tbh) creation of violent individuals. Of course, one murdered innocent is one lost life too many but there's a need to be realistic about what's actually achievable and I'm sorry to say it but I don't think there's any way of ensuring that everyone feels safe everywhere at any time of the day or night. We can certainly try to make sure that such fears are largely irrational but we can't create utopia.

You’ve yet to tell us what your wife did to draw the reaction from this fellow. She was most probably in the wrong and while I don’t agree with what happened in terms of the fellow abusing her. If she was in the wrong, which women usually are on the road, then she accept the consequences.

You’re in for a serious backlash here!!!😅

And (unless he's messing, which I thought he was ) quite rightly so.😁

But this is just more of this bs, pejorative, prejudice Dark Crystal:

"will always be a certain cautiousness around CERTAIN male behaviours. This has come from years of experiences - some low-level harrassment, some much more serious behaviour - that has shaped OUR lives as women...."

It's not male behaviours, it is the behaviour of some (minority of) men.

Get it right. Stop using this tragic murder as a soapbox for pejorative, prejudiced comment , the thin edge of blatant misandry, PLEASE!!

Do you think an on the spot fine, hitting him in the pocket, might be the way forward for these type of offences?