Is wolf-whistling a sex crime?

Doesn't matter what you carry with you if someone has a knife .

The man placed you in a terrifying situation, thatbags but it was different to what happened to the woman in the news. At the time the Ripper was on the loose we were all on heightened alert and it was reasonable for us to be more easily spooked especially if someone did something as irresponsible as that man did. It wasn't funny because we knew there was a killer on the loose and we had no idea what he looked like or where he would strike next.

When I lived in Edinburgh I used to carry a footstool that my husband had made for me. It was quite clunky and, though I used it as a footstool at the meetings I was going to it would also have come in handy as a defensive weapon had I ever needed it.

When a cousin of mine lived in Liverpool and went to night classes she used to carry a box of pepper and a hatpin in her pocket. I suppose nowadays she would be arrested for carrying offensive weapons.

Here's a thing. When the Yorkshire Ripper was stillat large I lived in Sheffield for a time. One night, cycling back from a Scottish Country Dance class, on main roads through Sheffield, the driver of a Transit van overtook me, stopped, got out and opened the back door of the van and, as I passed on my bike, invited me to get in the back of the van. I ignored him but I felt quite shaken. He did this again. I was frightened.

The street we lived on was a steep hill up which I could not cycle on my three gear bike so I had to get off and push the bike up the hill while feeling very frightened. Fortunately there was a public phonebox near our house from which, as we didn't have a phone, I called the police to report the incident. I had memorised the van's registration number.

The police found the man and asked him what he was up to. He said he was just joking and they sent a bobby to see me and tell me that. I was not pleased.

I would certainly call that harassment but I'm not sure I'd call that a crime even though I think it most certainly wrong. I hope that man never behaved like that again.

In the case in question on this thread, I guess the woman got to the point of feeling frightened as I had and reported to the police in the hope of putting a stop to the harassing behaviour.

We have to "call such behaviour out". She has done no wrong even if we deplore the publicity.

It is harrassment. I am not sure if that is classed as a criminal offence nowadays.

Here we are:

Harassment is both a criminal offence and a civil action under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. This means that someone can be prosecuted in the criminal courts if they harass you. It also means you can take action against the person in the civil courts.

I tried to view it on my tab POGS and couldn't. Perhaps I should have tried again today on the PC but have been playing with DD2. If anyone harrasses her when she is older they will have me to deal with (if I am still here or capable, a threatening granny with a walking stick would sort him out.)

I did a bit of googling yesterday annsixty. It appeared to say that what happened to her would not be classed as criminal.
That was at best, what I could make of it.

A wolf whistle is not a criminal act.

And now as the OP can I ask the question again, is this a criminal act or just some unacceptable behaviour by a group of uneducated louts?

You're welcome, Rosequartz. I agree with your point earlier re the type of harassment our generation encountered compared to what is happening today. I think white males feel under siege and backlash is part of the reason for the escalation, also the prevalance of porn , which is almost a regular form of entertainment. IMO Poppy has been brave in speaking up . Just as overt racism gradually became socially unacceptable, actions like Poppy's will help overt sexism also to become unacceptable, if enuf people join her.

rosequartz

Did you view the link in the post made yesterday at 14.36?

It was a link to the Mirror and my belief is this is video evidence taken by the young lady in question. On that footage the driver of the 'machine' , which in this clip is of a JCB/digger is leaning forward and facing away from the video taker looking inward to the yard and not even acknowledging her presence until he spots one of his workmates looking out to the pavement .

I am wondering now if there has been research into male harassment of females in public places and whether things are improving or not. If they are not improving we need to change something so that things do improve.

Grans are not attacking the woman. They are discussing an issue and how best to deal with such sadly not always preventable things.

Thanks for that information armarmai which puts a different light on it.
The media does portray things how they want to, don't they

hope he got the sack

There is a site listed on MN re BBC news article 32493749 which reports that she did contact the company and they did not resolve the problem, in fact it escalated from vocalisations to physical confrontation.Also i have not read that she sought this publicity and i doubt if she anticipated that the granny generation would be attacking her. Fortunately the mummies are not.

thatbags
I must look out that book; my forebears are shepherds.

She is the innocent in this, but of course she is now wellknown and unfortunately this publicity will follow her, however wrong that is.
I worked with a temp who took her previous employers to court for constructive dismissal and won. However, she could not understand why she was unable to get another full-time job. She had also threatened litigation over an incident at the local hospital. However much she may have been in the right (and she was always in the right), it made future employers and local medical staff very wary of her.

According to the report I read, she did complain to the building company - but only on the same day she informed the police.

She is 23 - she feels she is being harassed- of course she wouldn't say anything to the men or look for the manager

I think that at 23, unless she is a real shrinking violet, phoning the manager would be the logical step and should not be beyond the capability of a woman of that age.
If she got nowhere then she would have to think again.

I am surprised that none of the other men on the site told him to 'give her a break, leave her alone' when he invaded her personal space. Not all men are sexual harrassers (is that a word?) and most are decent.

Personally if I'd found passing the building site so distressing, after a couple of days I'd have changed my route. If that was impossible then made sure I had earplugs in and ignored them - surely they'd have given up if no reaction?
That's not condoning their subsequent behaviour by the way.

She could have remained anonymous. The company could have sent around a general notice regarding behaviour reminding their staff of the company policy on wolf whistles etc. There were then be no way that anyone would have known who had complained. Instead she went public and is plastered over the papers.

I'm reading the just out book by @herdyshepherd1 (James Rebanks), The Shepherd's Life. I've got to the point where he is describing how the tups (rams) behave when the yows (ewes) come into season. The tups "are strutting and head-butting.... and stamping their front feet.... their manes bristle". Made me think of the behaviour of those other males mammals, some men. In our 'raw' state we humans are not so far removed from such animals and I don't think that, however much we might wish it, we can ever iron out all male harassing behaviour. We can teach women how better to deal with it though, how to assert themselves to "get the men told" by someone in authority over them, for instance, to stop their nonsense or lose their jobs.

She didn't have to go into the site. All she had to do was phone the head office and if she didn't want to speak to a man about it she could have asked to speak to a woman. The head office would then have dealt with it.

There is that, katek. Assertive enough to not mind big publicity. Wouldn,t be my cup of tea, certainly.

GT, I wasn't thinking of her finding the manager on the site, but finding which company was doing the work (they have to display a sign, don't they?) and writing to the company director asking that the men be spoken to and told to stop wolf whistles, etc.

VQ....agree 100%

Jess M.....I'm well aware of the statistics, I just don't think that the default setting in instances like this should be to blame the male of the species without being aware of both sides of the debate. We wouldn't judge other situations without having all the information, wouid we? Let's get all The information before we rush to judgement.

Petallus.....you've just proven my point by using phrases like "taking men's side against women." Separatist and confrontational language- sides? against? - this isn't war! Men are not my enemy! We all know lots of men through work, family, social circles etc and that they're all pretty decent blokes with the same fears and foibles as the rest of us. Why are they all condemned in your eyes ( I repeat, "taking men's side against women") by virtue of their sex?

Thatbags.....if you're referring to the young lady in question as not being assertive then I wouid have to disagree. She's assertive enough to deal with being plastered all over the media.

Her actions have demeaned the very real work on equality that still needs to be done.