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The latest PC absurdity


Space Commander Travis

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Yes,  Wolf whistling to become a hate crime:

A police force has become the first in Britain to recognise misogyny as a hate crime, in an effort to make the county a safer place for women. 

Nottinghamshire Police is recording incidents such as wolf whistling, street harassment, verbal abuse and taking photographs without consent within the hate crime definition.

 

This is the kind of absurdity that lumping things together brings. "Verbal abuse" and "unwanted sexual advances" are surely one thing, but Wolf whistling a Hate crime? Surely it's appreciative.  :rolleyes: 

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But seriously, ranks equally with verbal abuse? How silly. This is the kind of thing that makes people not takes well intentioned laws seriously. 

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18 minutes ago, Emma_Acid said:

No, it is not appreciative, it is harassment. 

This has to be an age/generation thing.  I don't see it as harassment or abuse at all.  As a teenager in the 60s I got one or two and didn't think anything of it (If I got one now I would be seriously concerned for the mental health of the author of it!), but unless it is accompanied by lewd remarks or physical harassment, walk on with your head held high, and 'get a life'.

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9 minutes ago, Otto von Pickelhaube said:

But seriously, ranks equally with verbal abuse? How silly. This is the kind of thing that makes people not takes well intentioned laws seriously. 

But the thing that people just don't seem to get is that it is cumulative.

When you (the royal you, I don't mean you specifically) wolf whistle at a lady, you might assume that this is an appreciative gesture - but do you take in to account the fact that this might be the tenth, twentieth time it has happened that day, and is often combined with obscene gestures or worse (something physical)? 

That is not appreciation. It is harrasment. Don't make apologies for it

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See, the crime should be equal to the effect it has on the victim, of course that is over simplification, but still.

one thing I think most people can agree on is that the cat calling idiots who heckle women as they walk past are... Well... Idiots.  Maybe that should be the crime instead.

but Otto, I take the point this might be a small step too far.

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I want to meet this woman who gets wolf-whistled 20 times a day, do you have her number ?

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5 minutes ago, Susanc241 said:

This has to be an age/generation thing.  I don't see it as harassment or abuse at all.  As a teenager in the 60s I got one or two and didn't think anything of it (If I got one now I would be seriously concerned for the mental health of the author of it!), but unless it is accompanied by lewd remarks or physical harassment, walk on with your head held high, and 'get a life'.

It is not an age thing. And if it has only happened to you once or twice then lucky you. Comments like this simply legitimise behavior. 

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I can absolutely understand that this is unwanted attention for some women, and it's not something I'd ever do myself, but "hate crime"?

Seriously, we live in a country where Islamic schools are allowed to teach young boys that women are essentially doormats, and this is where Police invest their resources... time to reassess priorities I'd say.

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Let's start a bra burnin' bon fire ...

~

disclaimer : its all tongue in cheek

~

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1 hour ago, Emma_Acid said:

No, it is not appreciative, it is harassment. 

I can agree that it's a very minor form of harassment as long as whistling is all that is being done, but it's hardly a hate crime.

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51 minutes ago, Habitat said:

 

Edited by Emma_Acid
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1 minute ago, Wickian said:

I can agree that it's a very minor form of harassment as long as whistling is all that is being done, but it's hardly a hate crime.

Did you miss what I said about it being cumulative?

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I agree with Susanc241. As a teen in the 60s I would accept a wolf whistle as a compliment. Yes, I would blush and quicken my pace a bit because I was shy, but I would also be smiling to myself.

Perhaps the difference is that there was very rarely any offensive 'banter' to go with the whistle and I certainly never felt threatened in any way. If these days the whistle is accompanied by rude gestures and vile comments then I can see it would be intimidating ....... but a 'hate crime'? I'm not sure about that. It would be virtually impossible to police, anyway.

@ Emma_Acid: I find your 'cumulative effect' charge hard to accept. You'd have to be enduring a hell of a lot of it every day. Could you expand a bit on what you mean?

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1 minute ago, Emma_Acid said:

Did you miss what I said about it being cumulative?

Yes I did, I hadn't read that far into the thread when I responded.

I just don't see it ever qualifying as a hate crime.  The men are showing(in their own sleazy way) that they like what they're seeing by whistling as opposed to attacking(physically or verbally) someone because they don't like and hate what they see.

Maybe give them a small ticket if a cop sees them doing it?  $15-20 dollars is small enough to not really hurt them but big enough to maybe make them hold their tongue in case they get caught.

Other forms of misogyny might qualify, but I would need to see a specific example of it before I could say whether I agree or not.  The term "misogyny" is just too broad to condemn every single act as a hate crime since it can be anything from a whistle to rape.  Would refusing to let a date pay for part of a meal count as misogyny since the man may think he's superior or lacks respect for the woman and believes he should be paying?

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Sorry, but a bit of a rant coming...

There are too many youngsters (in my book, under 40s in general) in the world today (even a minority can be too many in some circumstances), who are far too thin skinned, too precious and too bl***y full of their own ideas of entitlement, that the world owes them a living, that they should be cosseted and protected from every effing thing and that, for heaven's sake, life HAS to be fair.  It isn't, and never will be.  Wolf whistling in and of itself is and never was a hate crime.  Crude and inappropriate maybe, but to report a whistle as harassment is out of proportion to the event.  If accompanied by lewd (or worse) comments, or by physical action by the 'perpertrator' it is another situation altogether.

I had more than 'one or two', I was being modest.  I have also been accosted physically in the street and on public transport a couple of times (in the vernacular, 'touched up') in my teens and as an grown woman, and I know the difference between those events and a wolf whistle.  There is no comparison.

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Anyone getting wolf-whistled repeatedly must be wearing lots of shoe leather doing laps around the block ! Seriously though, in today's world, a wolf whistler is more of an embarrassment to himself than anything else.

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Maybe its all those Sunday morning cartoon specials ~

`

`

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15 minutes ago, preacherman76 said:

There are also plenty of women who like it.

And plenty of women who do it.  Anyone who's ever been even remotely near a group of women out on a hen night will attest to that.  

 

 

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I dont think its the act of the whistle itself that is the problem. Its the psychological impact that being singled out in a random, unsecured location can have on those who suffer from mental issues such as PTSD. Anecdotally it seems the only people I ever see behaving like that in my area are latin immigrants which can certainly add to the perceived threat given their cultures. 

Even understanding those parameters I do think its a bit much to call it a hate crime. 

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7 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

Remember when you could grab a girls butt without it being sexual harassment? 

There has never been a time when this was acceptable. It might not have been labelled 'sexual harassment' but that was only because women hadn't yet found their voice.

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