So everyone’s favorite reactionary racist woman-hating fantasy author Vox Day has weighed in on that street harassment video that’s been going around. And his comments will shock you.
At least if you’re easily shocked and have never read any of my previous posts about him.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Vox thinks that street harassment isn’t really harassment, just a bunch of “unsolicited compliments and greetings” from friendly fellows.
But Vox does have one criticism of the non-harassers. They’re not doing it right.
Specifically, they’re being too nice to the women they’re pestering.
The ironic thing is that these men have it all wrong anyhow. They’d be much more likely to get a response from her if they glanced at her and laughed, rolled their eyes, or sniffed dismissively. Street neg, one might say.
So ladies, if you’re walking down the street and some angry weirdo sniffs dismissively in your direction, don’t be surprised if you suddenly feel a strong urge to bear his children. Because sniffing dismissively is a total Alpha move.
Vox’s regular commenters had a few thoughts of their own.
“The more we ignore them, the more they want us. Amusing creatures,” Laguna Feach Fogey sniffed dismissively.
“The day the catcalls finally stop will be far more traumatic for her than the catcalls have been,” Retrenched laughed.
“The poor thing ! but in a couple of decades she will be sexually invisible and all her problems will be solved,” PjBlue added, rolling his eyes dramatically.
Several others suggested that the woman in the sexual harassment video brought it on herself by dressing like a harlot … in a t-shirt and jeans.
“In other words,” cailcorishev wrote,
clothes that show off every curve of her body to greatest effect, so that everyone who sees her can tell from a mile away just how large and perky her goodies are. If her great-grandmother could see her, she’d be scandalized that she’s going outside practically naked.
Today I Learned that wearing clothes that cover up most of your body is the same as going outside practically naked.
Jimmy jambo offered the woman some style tips.
You’re supposed to wear baggy clothes and a hoodie so no one can see your face. I suppose this is what regular women face, but the world has already changed. Men are not required to be polite to women as in chivalry so catcalls are no different than name calling.
Wait, what?
Wow, katz. That was a great story. Thanks. Weirdly enough, my garden actually got started on its present path by some dreams I had where I was talking to animal people in my yard – a squirrel person especially. They asked me who the garden was for. When I told them that it was for all beings of goodwill who lived on the property or in a dimension adjacent to the property, I was told that they would help and we would have what we need. Since then, we have, indeed, had whatever we have needed when we have needed it.
It will take a year or more to finish building it. We just took delivery of ten tons of rock to build part of the rock beds.
Re: the racial dynamics of street harassment:
I never noticed this before, but you guys are right. Any time I’ve been scared by it, it’s been a white guy. I once got propositioned by a little old man who looked Sikh, but he didn’t scare me, it was actually kind of funny because he looked insulted that I refused his money. A black guy loomed on me once and asked for my number at a bus stop, but I didn’t feel scared by it, just uncomfortable. Usually if First Nations guys want to talk with me, it’s not in a creepy way. The only time I’ve been uncomfortable around FN guys is when I lived in Saskatchewan and would get the ‘Cree or Dene’ thing, but that wasn’t a sexual issue. (I should probably note that I’m pretty ambiguous looking, racially, and people tend to see what they want to see)
What’s up with that? Or is it my own bigotry, and I just find white guys more scary? Or are the white guys who think it’s OK to street harass more likely to take it further than guys of other ethnicities?
@Kevin K, did you try roll-sniff-sniff?
I’m white, and I can say that white guys have been the worst.
Not necessarily the most vocal – in my experience, Hispanic guys are the most likely to say *something* (though this definitely varies – where I’m from, recent immigrants are the most likely catcall; locals are no more likely than any other dude), but also not likely to be crude (at least to me) – but white guys have been the most likely to take it to dark places if you’re not responsive (following, being “descriptive” with what they’d like to do, etc).
I really think that it’s primarily a sense of being entitled to acknowledgement / deference…
…which would also explain what some of you have said about white guys being especially bad when they assume that you’re a different ethnicity.
As I said, I’m pretty squarely fit into US definitions of phenotypically “white” ((blue/grey eyes; fine, tangle prone hair :p; and can get pretty pale, though I have a definite olive undertone – I’m a lurverly shade of green in the winter – and prone/able to get deeply tanned with no effort or burning), and racial and ethnic dynamics probably have a lot to do with why I can’t recall ever being catcalled/harassed by an Asian guy (either recent immigrant or native) or an African American and why the guys from North Africa and the Middle East who’ve done so have been relatively respectful (no overt sexual innuendo) if remarkably persistent.
It is! I’m 85% invisible these days, looking forward to being completely off the radar (I have a scowly resting face, so that keeps the rest down to mutters and distant calls).
I am so white. And thing is I’m not, you can def tell my mom’s not white, but I have the offblue eyes, pale skin, red curly hair, am tall, med build, hourglass. I know I’ve been harassed by non white dudes, but man those white dudes are the fucking worst. And try telling them that? No,, it’s black dudes, they say. No it’s those “others”, not us. White men are full of abuse and full of denial. They *never* face the consequences, they *never* fucking stop. Saw one yelling at WOC to “learn English and go home” when they weren’t responding to him, told him he was not allowed to talk to women that way and *he legit threatened to phone the police* because what *I* was doing was “abusive”. Dude, telling you that you are *not allowed* to abuse women and minorities is not abuse. Fuck off.
I’m in my 40’s and I still get it every day, pretty much. When do I become magically sexually invisible?
@Shaun DarthBatman Day, I find it’s a combination of geography and being fat for me, personally. I live in a smallish town that is extremely white, I look mixed race (I should add that I only look mixed race *here*), and that combined with my size makes me mostly invisible.
When I go to different places, I become different degrees of invisible. It’s weird.
For all these guys promises that women become unfuckable at 30 I still get it, and I’m 41. Though I have to say 10-15 or so was the worst, and as soon as I started to seem like I might be an adult it dropped dramatically.
Which tells you all you need to do about the men who do that shit, really.
Oh gods, yes. It was horrific.
Freaked out girl – “Um, I’m 11?”
Creep – “I don’t mind”
Freaked out girl – (makes face from The Scream)
Rinse and repeat until you’re old enough not to look like easy prey any more.
Oh, yeah, worst was 8-16 (yeah, 8, fuck sake), but it’s nowhere near gone. A year and a half ago ago I had the day of 9 men explaining oh so politely that I appeared to be in public while in possession of a vagina and they were concerned because I had no visible owner. 9. In winter. In a fucking parka. 9. And the last one fucking circled me for about 5 minutes (I was sitting on a bench) prior to “Watcha reading?”. I said “A papery thing with words in we call them books” he said “Is that non-fiction?”. Kid you fucking not.
Oh, and vulture creep was a white dude.
And the thing is that yes, I had visible boobs at 9, but I looked like a 9 year old in every other respect. Plus, you know, terrified and disgusted. Which is a huge turn-on, apparently.
Nothing will ever beat the woman who got hit on while wearing a snowsuit in terms of “go on, try to claim that it happened because she just looked too sexy to resist”.
http://therainydaywanderer.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/bbe998ee-6d9e-4e0f-8300-5780950c357b.jpg
http://rubmint.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/424b2_funny-pictures-kitten-is-perfect-for-halloween.jpg
Am Hallowe’en troll.
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/db/ac/2b/dbac2b4eb2c5789ef22200cf0dfda037.jpg
Honestly we lived in a tiny town. Everyone knew who I was. Boobs came in, I was 8, everyone knew *and yet*, no plausible deniability needed because that’s just how mne are amirite? It was disgusting. And all white dudes.
Ugh. Just ugh. Stop letting men do this. Men, I mean it, time to talk to your dude friends. And co-workers. And random assholes. I really don’t know how to prepare Mouse for it. I have no idea what to tell her.
I actually saw the movie “Downfall” with Bruno Ganz as Hitler. It was scarily good. He also played one of the angels in “Wings of Desire,” a movie I wholeheartedly recommend, along with its follow-up “Far Away, So Close.” And I love what you posted!
I learn something new about white male privilege every day.
I only had to deal with the catcalls and comments when I was in prison.
In other (Canadian) news, Navigator dropped Jian Gomeshi as a client! And 4 more women have come forward. And journalists are asking for anonymous stories for background. And at least one woman has learned, and not the hard way either, why we don’t report. YAY!
GOM, good. Now tell the others. Thanks!