Is wolf-whistling a sex crime?

There is a world of difference between Pompa's tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a man watching the world go by and admiring the female half of it, and some lout blocking a girl's path and frightening her. OF COURSE men like to see a pretty girl just as OF COURSE women like to see a handsome man. Aren't the threads full of jokes about them? I have read a lot more from the respectable grans among us on the subject than from the grandads.

Pompa has always made fun of the stereotype MCP (or male chauvinist pig) by parodying their utterances. He has done it too well here so that some people think he is serious, but surely everyone knows him by now? If you have really made him leave Gransnet over this, then we will all be the losers.

I agree Elegran.

I think that some women always dress to look attractive to men or other women whatever their age, and others don't.

A neighbour of mine, in her late 70s, always gets in a tizz if she's caught without her hair and makeup in place if she has a male visitor - she doesn't bother if she knows it's going to be a woman!

Message deleted by Gransnet for breaking our forum guidelines. Replies may also be deleted.

I agree with Elegran too, about pompa. The only thing I found odd about his post was that Mrs P only joined him 'several hours later'...

Why is it that some GN members seem to resent the very presence of a male poster, even one as innocuous as pompa?

Speak for yourself, I did!

Don't be so b****y po-faced, Grannytwice

Pompa is a warm-hearted bloke with a sense of humour. He has never replied bad-temperedly verbally on Gransnet as several female posters not a mile from that here I can name have. He is not a sexist pig, he is happily married to Mrs P and I am sure he behaves like a perfect gentleman. You need to learn to distinguish between a description of a normal masculine man enjoying the scenery walking past and a predatory macho male ogling and strutting.

Well, he's gone. Anyone else you would like to see the back of, G2? Me, for instance? Just say the word.

My comment was to soontobe , but now I am here, I don't agree that we (I certainly don't) resent the presence of a male poster, just, in this case, the post.

Just one last thought, why do wolf-whistlers assume women will be flattered by their attention or approbation? I would only be flattered if I valued the opinion or the taste of the other person and lads on a building site would be as unlikely to cut it for me as they would be to wolf-whistle at me!

None of us know pompa other than through his posts - his NS joke and his response to criticisms of it was enough for me to be pleased if he has really left. And what exactly is wrong with a bit of bad tempered verbal responses ? Beats sexist rubbish anytime and I ask again WTF should any of us have to read his descriptions of 'normal men enjoying the scenery walking past'? Surely there are specialist forums for men ( and women) who enjoy writing about or reading that sort of sleaze ?

Oh grow up Elegan - that was a pathetic post!

The word "ogle" is a very charged one. To me it does not mean a man noticing, while sitting drinking a cup of coffee, that there are attractive women going past. It means that he says or does something active about his admiration of them - whistles, winks, grins, waylays them, chats them up, puts an arm across their shoulders.

Interesting - when I do a bad-tempered response you tell me to grow up.

Well, some of us would have known pompa because he was coming to our next Leicester meet up [later in the year] but I doubt that he will now .

Why attack Pompa in this way? Have you never people watched? When you see a man for the first time what attracts you to him? It can't be his mind because you've never spoken to him so it has to be physical. Do you admire his face, his physique, his dress sense or something else? Don't you ever watch women and mentally comment on their dress sense, makeup, hair etc?

It's interesting that we can discuss on another thread about having a thicker skin when challenged by others who don't agree with us, yet this is not a factor here. Pompa could choose to return and discuss it. Shame we don't have more male Gransnetters who don't share his appreciation of inappropriate jokes or stereotyping of women (tongue in cheek or not) and a shame that the women asserting here that they don't like being objectified by either nice men or nasty men get castigated for upsetting him. (Ducking the inevitable mssiles now, but I strongly feel I have the right to object to sexism, even from nice men).

The attacks on pompa are vicious and downright unnecessary.

He's always been tongue in cheek and, quite frankly, a breath of fresh air on here and comes across as warmhearted and thoughtful.
He certainly IMO is neither sexist nor stereotyping women.
His joke about NS was just that, a joke. And don't tell me you've never people watched or looked at a bloke and admired his physique.

I'm disgusted at the vitriol that's been hurled at him.

I am disgusted too. There have been plenty of similar comments on Gransnet by women about men and no-one batted an eyelid. Double standards is not equality.

Don't tell me "you've never people watched or looked at a bloke and admired his physique". Exactly, loopy. The scientific and biological reality is that when you see someone whose physique you like but whom you don't know personally and whom you cannot get to know, that person, the one you're looking at, is being looked at by you as a sex object. There is nothing else they can be at that moment. You don't have to like that fact but it's the plain truth nonetheless.

There's nothing actually wrong with being thought a sex object. We are sex objects. We are a lot else as well, but to casual gazers that's all each and every one of us is.

Sexism involves being against a sex, if I understand correctly? [re whemim64's post]

I am not talking about children.

ana, I was amazed at the phrase "several hours later" too. What a model of patience pompa must be!

How much coffee and cake did you get through, pomps?

Mind you, maybe it only felt like several hours