Is wolf-whistling a sex crime?

I have been watching this thread and am quite amazed at the way it has gone.
Do come back pompa - I am so surprised that people can so misunderstand your sense of humour.
I agree with your posts Elegran - so please don't 'grow up' - I prefer you with your sensible, down to earth, responses!
I agree thatbags - huge double standards- you would never guess that most of the female population enjoyed watching Aiden Turner with his scythe!
Don't be chased off by a few humourless people pompa.

Reading these posts I have been surprised at the vitriol from GT. She sounds like a very embittered older person who has never had a wolf whistle and doesn't particularly like men. Abbreviated swearing unnecessary too. So sad that pompa has resigned for just bringing a bit of good natured levity to various forums.

I had intended to stay off GN but I am horrified by the way a thread I started so naively has turned out and one of the few men on here has felt he must leave. It has taken a very nasty turn ,which has shaken me. Along with throwaway remarks on another thread about Alzheimer's which was shocking for me to read I will be taking a break, so enjoy your summer everyone.

I have skim read most of this thread. I agree totally with everything grannytwice has said. Everything. (if anyone cares )

I agree with Leticia and Belladonna I do hope Pompa comes back. I'll miss his tongue in cheek humour.

It seems to me that in Grannytwice the thought police have arrived and maybe I should leave too. Many a time I have sat people watching and admired a young or even not so young man that has passed by.

Attack on GT out of order IMHO bellanonna, you know nothing about any members which is one reason for our anonymity so to make that damning (?) assumption is unwarranted. A person may argue against a post but not "ad hominem."

I too thought the Alzheimer's jibe plumbed new depths and I hope the poster is aware of the inappropriateness of the comment.

Bit of a freudian slip Ginny ?

After defending gransnet against accusations of nasty attacks on people, I found myself last night railing against those very attacks.

This started as a thread about a girl being intimidated by a man. There is some doubt in posters' minds about the facts of the case, but what is clear is that she felt threatened and took action. It became a thread about the attitude of men to women, and women to men.

We heard about some scary moments in posters' lives, about predatory men who took advantage of their youth an.d inexperience. We agreed that women can also be predatory, can also tease an inexperienced young man and scare the pants off him.

We established (or I thought we had) that both men and women are sexual beings, by nature. Indeed, the human race would die out of we were not. We agreed that private thoughts about the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex were natural.

Then a man told us that he had spent a pleasant hour or two sitting watching pretty girls go by. Not that he had ogled them, groped them, harassed them, scared them. Just that he had sat quietly being glad that they existed. For that he was treated as a potential stalker and rapist.

Would those who castigated him prefer that their husbands and sons were unaware of pretty girls? They wouldn't get many grandchildren to cuddle if that were the case - or were all their own children and grandchildren born by immaculate conception? You can't have the particular affection that makes a lasting and faithful marriage without the general awareness that actually there are a lot of other attractive women out there too. It is when the man regards those other women, or women in general, as his property to use, that he is a menace.

Will the posters be attending the proposed virtual party that is being planned, to protect helpless virtual policemen against those rampant Grans with their virtual vodka jellies? What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, quite a few regular posters will be there living it up, and we must need defending from their reports too - which contain much stronger innuendo than the post objected to on here. THAT thread is good fun, about a virtual world. A man posting about other good innocent (and just as virtual) fun is sleazy. What happened to equality?

What virtual party? Nobody told me, so I suppose I have not been invited
Infamy, infamy. . . .

(Cliques again I expect)

Soutra Please explain. Not sure what you mean maybe I am not properly awake yet ?

It is on the "Widowhood" thread, Soutra that is why you missed it. not the first place you would think to look. Is that a clique? If so I ought to be in it.

"Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it infamy" Kenneth Williams

I think the sexist, bullying, ignorant lout/louts on the building site should get their come-uppance.

(I'm sorry I'm late to this thread)

So do I, Jings

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

Soutra - I actually said "sounds like"

Ginny you called Bellanonna " Belladonna" -^atropa belladonna^ (deadly Nightshade) being one of the most toxic plants.

Of course it also means " beautiful woman" which is clearly what you had in mind.

And it "sounded like " pretty insulting to me, Bellanonna.

"...some of them could be lesbians" (*magpiegran*)

Are lesbians men haters? #oddcomment

Sorry. Magpie123

Thanks Soutra Fingers not awake yet either.

"Would those who castigated him prefer that their husbands and sons were unaware of pretty girls? They wouldn't get many grandchildren to cuddle if that were the case "
So is it only "pretty girls" who have children? Elegran?
The thing about sexual attraction and love is that it often has very little to do with being pretty. Watch a French film- "Romauld and Juliette" to see how attraction and love isn't really about glamour or being pretty but something much deeper.
As for Pompa and his posts he may be joking, but he should recognise that if the joke isn't appreciated the best thing to do is apologise and try to make a serious contribution, not storm off.

I am glad that you have said that you dont want him to go trisher.

That's nice. A pat on the head from St Soon.

Eloethan Thu 30-Apr-15 23:43:23 An excellent post.

(I have not been following this having other things on my mind.)

Eloethans point is "The comments that follow the various articles about this story suggest that wolf whistling supporters also have a similar attitude towards women who don't behave in the appropriate way when they are "complimented"

The remarks she has quoted give an indication about the nasty attitudes towards woman indicated by this behaviour which is done by the sort of men who "can't see what's wrong with a wolf whistle"*

It's not "just the wolf whistle" itself that is the problem, although that can be irritating. What we really need to do is to think about the attitudes behind this behaviour.
This group of men seem to feel entitled to think of a woman as being there for their "use." That attitude has unfortunately has long been entrenched in human culture. It's now the 21st century and time we stood up against those views.

Schools etc need to work on this issue with all their pupils to get (particularly the men they do do most of it) and the young women to put some thought into why this is so wrong.

(I am also appalled by the behaviour of woman who act like this towards men. Probably usually younger men.) That is very nasty bullying.

School bullies often say, we were only having a bit of fun.!