Re: RE:Re: I'm all for women only carriages...
'Maybe just maybe', eh? What exactly are you implying here? Could you explain it to me like I'm, say, a silly girl?
Honestly, what a bunch you are.
2823 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jan 2008
There are always going to be malicious accusations, but men shouldn't live in fear of them - you still have to be incredibly unfortunate, and getting paranoid about it and making a big deal of staying away from women to avoid accusations is ridiculous. In fact, just as ridiculous as the assumption that all men are potential molestors - but I honestly don't know any women who feel that way. It's all paranoia about other people's paranoia.
I don't think it could have been easier for me to report it, the police were right there. I just didn't for various reasons, all of which were wrong. Like I said, it's the principle of the thing, and I think I owed it to other women to report it even if it meant I was a bit late going out. Hey ho.
The bloke was just a kid, egged on by his mates, didn't see an issue with it. I don't think you can educate that out of people once they've decided that's their worldview. But you have to hammer the message that it is just not acceptable, and that it shames you, etc... shame of course used to be a very powerful motivator, and as all the oldies lament (quite correctly for the most part) it isn't so much any more, but I think you can still make it work.
Do you people actually think about what you're saying? Ever? Don't you realise what it sounds like? Would you say it out loud to anyone, or is it a special internet-only type deal?
I don't think the right not to be assaulted is a 'special right for womankind', but if that's what you've decided then I'm not going to attempt to enlighten you. What 'special needs' are you suggesting I might have?
Here's a nice little story for you, stop me if you've heard this one before, etc. I had my arse grabbed in the street by some little idiot last year, in the early evening, when I was on my way out with my flatmate. I shouted at him. He shrugged and said he was "just askin'". There was a stalemate for a few moments - he didn't go away, and I didn't want to continue walking as he seemed to be going in the same direction. I started to feel frightened as I couldn't figure out what was best to do and whether or not he would try and do anything else. Eventually, he defiantly grabbed me again, and then swaggered off back the way he had come (to be greeted by his cheering mates).
We went the other way, me shaking with rage. As luck would have it, we passed some police officers who had pulled over a car. But I didn't report it, thinking that they wouldn't think it was worth reporting, and they wouldn't be able to identify him anyway, and even if they did they couldn't do anything to deter him from doing it again, and besides all of that well really look at the way I'm dressed I could have expected it.
I will always regret not reporting it, as a matter of principle, but moreover I am always going to feel ashamed of myself that I felt even for a second that it was my own fault, and that I figured it wasn't worth reporting.
It was an upsetting experience - however, I'm not traumatised, not a bit, and it hasn't affected my behaviour or how I feel about men in any way at all, so no, it's not the end of the world, Frank. But no civilised society should tolerate it, and nobody should be afraid to use public transport for fear of being sexually assaulted in any way.
Anyone else got something hilarious and bravely non-PC to say? Can't wait.
Ahhh, brilliant, you found a way to get around it. First rate. "WHAT ABOUT THE LESBIANS INDEED? WOMEN ARE NOT SAINTLY HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST IT, YOU MISANDRIST!"
I would think the huge-numbers-of-men-groping-women-on-the-subway thing is cultural, as in peculiar to that society as an issue. Women groping women has not emerged as a serious or widespread problem which needs to be addressed in this way, otherwise they surely would. Not that women never do it, nor that this doesn't happen elsewhere in the world, but it's a specific problem which...
Oh, I give up. Just grope amongst yourselves, or whatever.
"Cue rants from feminists who cry "rape" when a man looks at them sideways,..
Cue sniggers from pervs who look at women sideways,..
Cue sociology dissertations from Guardian readers who have never seen a woman naked,...
Cue cries of "eeeuuuuw" from middle-class women who you wouldn't touch with a barge pole,...
All the old cliches, and all the best ones."
Rants from feminists?
Barge poles?
What have they put in your trough today?
It was a slightly silly and wonky apology, badly expressed (shock), but it was an official gesture - that's what these things are. You can't be literal about it - it's a symbolic act. Of course other things need to be done but at least it's made his family happy, and has drawn a line separating us from a nasty, nasty part of our past, and if you'd like to explain how that is a bad thing (as in actually negative, not just inadequate) then I'm all ears.
Hey, HEY, who made me the saviour of decency, sunshine?
Oh right, yes, I suppose.
Well... it's not very nice, no, but I think we're relatively non-evil, actually, on stuff like this. A quick Google of Brian Peppers will show you what happens when the internet decides to dogpile some poor bastard (who may or may not have done anything but has certainly been dealt a lousy hand by life).
Meanwhile, there are suggestions that in fact, ugly people do commit more crime. It's genuinely interesting, if uncomfortable.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/18/MNGRIHAT6I1.DTL
Why would you equate Reg mods with the authorities? Don't be daft. I'd rather not deal with the inevitable crap this is going to cause but I'm not going to give in to your persecution fantasies by rejecting your comment. It's a valid opinion and you didn't say a big rude word. Go ahead.
The rest of you - try and be sort of nice and only throw soft objects, please.
You seem to know quite a lot about these things, Ian - would you like to be our sex toy correspondent? (NB There is no opening for a sex toy correspondent. Yes I said 'opening'. Isn't that funny.)
The IT angle, further to your enquiry, has to be just right or the whole experience is entirely disappointing.
>Sure, everyone was happy to phone the TFL help line to find out when their train was leaving because they didn't have a decent app to look times up.
Actually the helpline is more accurate than the clusterfuck of a website and the iPhone app doesn't seem to be any better. My mate looked up the last train from his place on his iPhone - I rang the helpline. They disagreed over the times by about an hour. The helpline was correct.
I'm not sure everyone's life is miserable because they're on one side of your list and not the other. Just saying, like.
See also: kids named after products, labels or designers. I heard a mother yell "DOL-CHAYY!" at her toddler once in Woolies. I didn't hang around to see if any of her other kids were called Gabana, or Gucci.
I suppose once you get children showing up with 'Reebok Heskelthwaite' on their name tags you're obliged to call the police.
PR company may have shot self in foot since more readers are likely to think "Ooh I quite fancy a Jaffa Cake" rather than the brand in question which most will have overlooked.
Register reader reads clearly frivolous item, complains.
Million billion commentards point out that the Jaffa Cake is a cake not a biscuit by law.
Moderatrix wonders if it's too early to start on the bourbon.
Hoooo boy, that's my afternoon taken care of, then.
Could I just ask a) if you imagine this kind of escalation occurs with the majority of people who look at porn, and b) what possible harm owning or ooking at a picture of something does that necessitates the prosecution of the viewer?
Also, define 'unhealthy interest', if you would.
Any rational person should be able to see that this law is an immoral farce. Oh, and if the government actually cared about animal welfare they would sort out DEFRA, the Dangerous Dogs Act and any number of other badnesses which cause actual quantifiable suffering. It's wall-to-wall bullshit.
Yeah, whaddya know, people are drama-queen morons. You only need to see an urban fox with a bit of mange to be able to figure this one out. Or indeed those pics.
But hey, we all need a bit of excitement in our lives, so far be it from me. Woo! Baldy mythic beasts! See the evidence! Wow!
Sigh.
Alright, I'm going to have to respond to this just for clarity's sake. This line
"Evidence of this blind sexualisation ... of breasts in any context is widespread"
was added in the editing process. By a person with tits, as it happens. Not that that makes any difference. The crucial point is 'in any context'. Perhaps I should have put 'in all contexts'. Of course they're sexual in some contexts. Just not all of them.
I understand it's a complicated issue, I'm not quite sure where I stand on it as it may not actually be very good for women (yes, yes, or men) at all. However, this
>>You don't seem to get it that women like Gloria Stovell are basically taking to take the piss out of nerds like you - she's saying "Look! but you can't touch, Ha Ha!".
is a little worrying. Is this really how you think women's minds work? It's not all about you, you know - some women want to go topless for comfort, not as some grand plan to cocktease the entire male populace.
Hey ho.
I can't take credit for staying out of it, MnM, as through some great fortune I haven't been moderating this thread. Now that I am moderating it, I can assure you that I'm going to stay out of it and will be taking my usual tack for this sort of thing - letting some of the crap through so you can see what's out there, and nixing the very worst, which I'll let you imagine.
>>Btw, I hope none of the commentards using words like "barbarous" above come from a country that condones torture or any form of capital punishment.
Fair point on the 'why do we bother' issue, but I would think that any commenters condemning barbarity in other countries would also condemn it in their own if it occurs there. It's hardly their fault. You can't really suggest it makes them hypocrites. I don't endorse a lot of my own country's policies, do you?
I suggest everyone expressing their approval of thrashing as a suitable deterrent for drunken yobbery bear in mind that this woman is being physically punished simply for *drinking alcohol*, not for drinking alcohol and subsequently smashing up a bus shelter and punching a policeman in the gob while singing 'you're going home in a fuckin ambulance'.
Not that anyone is explicitly condoning it - just that some of you don't seem inclined to condemn it. But that's up to you, of course.
Yes, clearly you lot are all about the advancement of human furthering. And! the humanising of further advancing.
I think some of you lot have your pretentions to saving the world from itself, no? It's the internet after all. But yes, it's still a far cry from Twitter. Anyway, I think all El Reg commentards and Twitterers should grease up and fight to the death. Not to decide who's furthering human furthersomeness further or anything, just because the world might be a more agreeable place.
La la!
>We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an <del>country</del> organization...
>Here in Germany, for that statement alone the lawsuit would be thrown out and that comapny fined for abuse of the law.
I'm sure there in America they wouldn't appreciate you tarring the entire country with the same litigious brush. I mean, they'd probably sue you, etc.
Seriously, though, bit less of the extrapolation? Ta.
One more time - feminism does not equate to misandry. Most people who want a better deal for one group do not want that at the expense of another. And so it follows you can be pro-men's rights without being anti-women, because they're not all anti-men (even if some of them are). Can't you?
Being anti- any group in particular, wholesale, is always bullshit and helps no one. And if you think a group is anti-you, why be anti-them in return? You're only sinking to their level. If you feel they are unfairly condemning you as a member of a group, you'll only be doing the same thing. Most people are decent and they want a fairer and better world where everyone is happier just like you do. There are problems with individuals and with cultures and societies, yeah, but you've got to identify them correctly and focus on them and not make vast sweeping statements and consider that the end of it.
Boy oh boy. This really isn't the place to do this, is it.