Our thanks to Russell for this piece from the indefatigable feminists at the BBC. The headline is:
International Women’s Day: ‘Two thirds of UK women’ harassed
The start of the piece:
Almost two-thirds of women in the UK have had unwanted sexual attention in public places, a survey by YouGov has suggested.
Out of 889 women asked, 64% said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with 35% saying they had suffered “unwanted sexual touching”.
The survey was commissioned by the End Violence Against Women Coalition. Sarah Green, the coalition’s acting director, said sexual harassment was “an everyday experience” in the UK.
So, what exactly is ‘sexual harassment’? Another excerpt:
Unwanted sexual attention can include instances of wolf-whistling, sexual comments being made, staring, and indecent exposure.
So 64% of women have experienced at least one of these things, on at least one occasion in their lives. It’s not quite the last debauched days of Rome, is it? I think it fair to say 100% of British men will have been the subject of unwanted staring from women at some point in their lives, which leads us to an inevitable conclusion, and an obvious headline for a BBC piece on International Men’s Day, 19 November:
International Men’s Day: UK men 56% more likely to be sexually harassed than UK women.
Women can do what they like. Men can only do what feminists say it’s OK for them to do.
Since you asked, I have been the subject of unwanted attention, touching and I have been wolf-whistled at, had sexual comments made about me and been the subject of indecent exposure by women and I have witnessed other men who have also been subject to some of those things. Quite frankly some women, especially when drunk are incorrigible. I guess that technically when I have approached a woman who has rejected my advances I have also been a perpetrator, but unlike some women I have never touched a woman who didn’t solicit such attention nor have I for that matter had sex with a woman who has been drunk on a first date as a gentleman’s rule, to several women’s annoyance. I get the unwanted touching part, but are men and women not allowed to give complements or ask each other out anymore?
As epistemol says quite fairly, I’m so attractive I have often had to fight them [both men and women] off, but I would add that it is not only women who possess sexual power, ask any pimp.
As far as women are concerned (and in fact probably most human beings to be fair) there is no such thing as ‘unwanted’ attention. If not sought after it can simply be ignored.
It is, however, important to realise what is really going on here. Complaints about unwanted attention are actually nothing of the sort.
What they actually are, are boasts, gloats and put downs. “See us” they are saying, “we are so attractive we have to fight them off in the streets, in the fields and on the beaches.”
It should not be forgotten that women’s principle power is sexual, but along with this goes deception and manipulation. It’s in their biology, as well as their socialisation, that they will rarely say what they mean directly, it needs to be interpreted. All women instinctively know this, and any man who doesn’t will find them an eternal puzzle and mystery.
As, indeed they are meant to.
Another useful device, as any woman when challenged, and if truthful will admit.