The longer I live in the city, the more I hate men

nut, perverted, lunatic, stalker and so forth.

- Keith Butler

‘Hate’ is probably too strong a world, but ‘dislike’ is most definately not. It would probably be a good idea to mention why the longer I live in the city, my dislike grows. It is because of many (not all) guys’ attitudes towards seeing a woman walking on the street. The normal guy would either just keep going (not paying notice) or maybe have a slight glance. While others feel it is their duty to either approuch that woman with disgusting suggestions or honk their horns and again shout filthy things regarding the woman’s body.

My simple and relaxing 1.5 mile walk to uni turned into a tortuous and painful onslaught of male abuse. Not only was I approuched by a guy once; saying I was “hot” as he put it, but I was also honked at by 4 different cars. One even had the nerve to shout that I had big ‘boobs’ as he put it. Why thank you for letting me know that, before you so graciously pointed it out to me I didn’t realise that! Everyday when I looked into the mirror I missed that detail, thank you ever so much for telling me. Wanker. I think I was even followed for a little bit. There was a guy walking behind me, the same distance away for a good 10 minutes or so, when he very casually and not looking to be in a hurry, he walked past. I have little legs (5ft 1inch) so my normal speed is quite brisk for me but for this guy with long legs its hardly a competition. So when this guy ‘casually’ walked past making no real effort of speed, it made me wonder. What the hell was he doing back there so long?! To stay at my speed he must have been going pretty slow from his normal pace. Suffice to say until I got to uni I was looking over my shoulder for the rest of the walk. I don’t get why men do it, do you think women like it? They don’t! or at least the majority don’t. It is not flattering or clever so I don’t see, beyond making themselves feel powerful, why they do it. Would you like it if women did it to you? Would you like it we shouted from our cars “nice package!” or “great arse!”, no. I don’t suppose you would. I’ll admit there are some women already like that, but I can pretty much guarentee that they have had to deal with it themselves.

There doesn’t seem a day that goes by were I don’t get this verbal abuse, and I am sick to death of it! The longer this continues the longer I think I have less chance of meeting a nice guy because when it happens I just don’t like men! Don’t get me wrong, I like men in a hetrosexual sort of way but when this happens I want to torture all of mankind! Only in my head though.

Men (and even some women) have said it is because of the way women dress. Maybe it is, but that does not mean women should have to put up with that treatment. It shouldn’t matter what a woman wears! For example today I was wearing a long t-shirt and 3/4 length trousers. Hardly something skimpy, and look at the response I got! I wore that outfit because it was warm outside. It seems the only time when women are safe from this amountof abuse is winter. I say amount because it still happens then too. What really upsets me though is when women actually say that men can’t help themselves. I was in a conversation with a girl I knew as we were walking home and some guys in a car honked their horn at us. I said to her something like ‘they’re pathetic’ and she basically replied that she believed that men were biologically not able to control themselves and were to be pitied. She also said that was why she changed the way she dressed, choosing to be in my words, a bit dull. Upon hearing that not only was I upset but I went on my spiel of how a woman should be able to wear what she wants but my companion was having none of. Does it make men feel sad that some women genuinely believe this? It made me feel sad that we have gotten to that stage.

I hope that one day someone can cure me of this hatred/dislike; maybe when I get a boyfriend. But until I don’t get this verbal abuse on the street, I don’t even see a boyfriend helping.

Here is a song I like that touches upon, disrespect.