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nonightowl · 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Discombobulated

Yeah that’s not nice, and I’m glad you’d report it now, I’m sorry people didn’t stop him. Sometimes people do just freeze.

I can tell you though that my son (he’s in his 20s) has had harassment from women, sometimes in the street (once when he was just 17) and work. He’s quite a muscly guy and the number of certain type of women who think it’s okay to squeeze his biceps has quite astonished me. It does happen to men too, I didn’t realise the extent until it happened to him. And men often don’t feel like they can report either, or at least my son didn’t, he felt embarrassed. Like he’s meant to take it as a compliment??

Assault/harassment is never okay whatever gender you are.

People are afraid to get involved or they freeze, like Discomb says. It's so shocking that they are just immobile.

It's true that men can be harassed too, not just by women by other men.

What you said about your son reminded me of how a man I was acquainted with kept asking me out and I said no. One time he snuck up behind me while I was on the computer at the library. He leaned in close and put his hand on my shoulder, saying "We really have to go out sometime." I said "No we don't!" Yeah before anybody says it was my shoulder and not something else, it was still totally invasive and inappropriate to touch me.

Speaking of what you said about compliments, I once had a man stare at me in the parking lot of a coffee shop. I was sitting outside waiting for someone. He rolled down his window, stared like staring at a painting, and smiled. I didn't smile back. Inside he got in line behind me. He said something about how pretty I am, then at the cream and sugar counter, he was right behind me again.

He then got offended and yelled in front of other customers that I have a real problem!

And to add insult to injury as they say, this so-called friend (whom I no longer talk to) said I should have felt complimented. When I said what happened, she asked "Well did you say THANK YOU?" WTF?

Talk about feeling objectified. Staring, following me, then getting upset I'm not flattered? It's creepy and stalky. It's wrong for people to touch others like what happened with your son. And it was wrong of that man in the coffee shop to say that I'm the one with the problem. He needs to learn boundaries and to not just walk up to women like that.

I read somewhere that the US has lost its moral compass. Not only harassment up and plain courtesy is gone now it seems.

Jeskya, so sorry.

This happens to me too, as the creeps are drawn to me like moths to a flame. And they will get singed. I swear I'm a $hit magnet.