People strike back against catcalls and street harrassment

Yay!!!!


That kind of...mainly sexual... harassment was actually made against policy by the big, mean, ugly union that most building site workers belong to here, the Builder's Labourers Union (the BLF motto: "We don't get mad, we get even") in the seventies.


When I say mean, they are a REALLY tough union...but, bless 'em, their union was convinced that sexual harassment is wrong, and the delegates and industrial staff were really damn tough about it.


I had friends working for 'em back then, and they recounted stories of big, tough delegates, whose swearing would even make ME blush, suddenly rounding on colleagues and saying stuff like: "Comrade, that is sexual harassment, and it is against union policy, so ******* shut yer mouth."


It has made walking past building sites not the misery it once was..and believe me, in Oz, it was not just targeted at poor women...it was at EVERY woman.

I went not to npr but the hollaback site, and I couldn't figure out how to get to that area.

It did give me ideas for a new log in name though

Do I seem more like....

mamawitdaazz or

mzungandsexii

???

Story from a friend in Florida.

Her condo building has a swimming pool frequented not only by the tenants of the building but by their children and grandchildren.

One July day a number of teenage boys decided to demonstrate their masculine prowess by making loud comments about the physical attributes of teenage girls.

Whistles. Catcalls. Personal remarks. The young louts were were brutal.

The next day a group of blue-haired retirees (with a pitcher of margaritas) settled down at poolside and began loudly commenting on the physical attributes--or lack of physical attributes--of each of the gang of fun-loving teenaged boys.

Whistles. Catcalls. Personal remarks. The little old ladies were both brutal and witty.

Thereafter the teenage boys applied the Golden Rule.

Probably some divergence in my experience.. in that I wasn't around construction sites so much - except for doing it myself - until I was in the site observer/pay ok rank. Worst stuff I heard was 'good morning, ladies' - which we've already had a thread about and nobody got my point, how I could ever not always like the word "ladies".

mostly I didn't have gripes on all that, most of the time.

But I do just remember, slightly, probably before I was twenty, walking out of my way to avoid construction sites. Heck, I remember being humiliated by a guy in physics class.

Lot of years have passed and I see this all a little sardonically, but - at least in my time of awakening, and I suppose still for some now, people can really be invaded by street taunts.

I've mixed feelings on all this. If I had to vote this minute, I've vote to let the guy taunt, and let other remedies work themselves out.

Good Lord, men still whistle and catcall? lol I haven't heard that sound here in - gee, must be more than 20 years. (Thank Heavens. It used to be quite embarrassing.)

Doesn't surprise me, though - Vancouver is known to be overly PC

Re: People strike back against catcalls and street harrassme


Is it really necessary to attempt to introduce socio-economic victimization into every example of loutish behavior? The Hollaback website is hardly a reliable source for any conclusion in this regard.

Having worked in construction during my early years, the only distinctions made by the pigs who found this behavior to be amusing had to do with whether or not they found the woman even marginally attractive, and whether or not they had a comeback. It was my experience that rather than being silenced by a woman's verbalized scorn, they were encouraged by it.

My take on this observed behavior was that it really had nothing to do with the personal sexual gratification of the individual, but rather his standing within the tribe of louts. I don't think I ever observed this behavior from a lone individual. Without his droogs to impress there was not much point in it, and if the target had the temerity to answer back it only made it even more crucial that the lout defend his standing by upping the ante. In fact, a comeback from a woman usually caused other louts to join in the catcalling. Razor like wit was of no value to a target. Half of the time it passed over the heads of the louts, the other half of the time it was met with something to the effect of "You dyke!" which all of the other louts were happy to accept as a crushing retort to any insult hurled back by the target.

Anecdotal evidence to be sure.

In numerous ways Australia and America are different, and based on the account of dlowan a major difference may lie in the behavior of Union representatives.

I was for several years a dues paying member of the Teamsters, and not once did any Union official (at any level) address us workers as "Comrade." They also never warned us not to engage in catcalling.

Again, anecdotal evidence.

Perhaps things have changed in the past 30 years. Maybe a modern Teamster can share more contemporaneous experiences. Certainly the cited article suggests that the practice of catcalling continues in 2006.

Well, a LOT of work went into the union reps!


Mind you, in Oz, big male dominated unions like the BLF hire people to act as industrial advocates, policy researchers, occupational health and safety experts etc, and some of these are women. Many...women and men...have damned fine politics re sexual harassment, as do some of the fellas who work on building sites, and education works well.


One of my closest friends worked for our "Teamsters" and she was a damned tough feminist.





Love it!



We did that in a Chinese restaurant I worked in for a number of years while I was a student.


The majority (but not all) men in the kitchen, and a few doing front of house, were not only sexual harassers to the nth degree, (but not to the Chinese women) but also extremely racist to the Anglo women. The boss was just very racist. (The boss refused to employ Anglo men.)

It made going into the kitchen to fetch meals, or do other tasks, horrible. They were even worse to the Greek women who did kitchen hand duties...


Anyhoo, once we had a few women who both objected and were prepared to act, we organised to make the same kinds of foul (but not AS foul...and certainly not racist) comments to the nasty men as they made to us.


They were outraged!!!


They complained to the boss, in a huge pack.....running out front in their aprons. Now, as I said, he was very racist, but not at all unpleasant in a sexual way, and he laughed at them.

They refused to speak to us for two weeks.....but we never again heard an obscene, racist or crude remark directed at us from them.

Haha.

Love it!