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“I’m old enough to be his mother”

October 9, 2012 By Contributor

I’m driving home and had to stop at 4-way stop sign. A man about my son’s age is crossing the street at crosswalk in front of me. I think I may have glanced at him before I took off, and that’s when I heard him say, “Hey Babe.”
I said, “Yeah right,” out my window, which was rolled down but I’m not sure if he heard me….I’m old enough to be his mother, and I was dressed like a schlub, so what did his remark really mean? It embarrassed me if anything.

– Anonymous

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Filed Under: Stories, street harassment

Comments

  1. alan says

    October 9, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    He said it because he could and because he thinks only of himself, otherwise it didn’t mean anything. We gotta get males to realize what complete dufus’ they are.

  2. Lakitha says

    October 11, 2012 at 5:25 pm

    Sometimes I think their minds just go blank and this sort of behaviour (especially for the not very bright ones) is their default setting. There are any number of ways he could have greeted you. A nod, a wave, a hello, something polite and unremarkable. (BTW, I have noticed a correlation between intelligence levels and how such men treat women they don’t know.)

    This can also happen at any age. I was once given such a greeting by a pre-pubescent boy. I was a college student at the time. He couldn’t possibly have understood what he was doing was horribly wrong. It was just behaviour that he’d seen grown men engage in and decided to imitate it.

  3. Christina says

    October 16, 2012 at 1:52 am

    I am a 34 year old woman and a boy no older than 16 grabbed my butt on the street while I was walking around the block, taking a break at work..my job in legal services. I was so upset, I yelled at that little ____ that he better have some respect, that I’m old enough to be his mother. (His poor own mother.) The study that you’re trying to fund needs to go above age 30. I have experienced more and more harassment as the years pass.

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SSH will not publish any comment that is offensive or hateful and does not add to a thoughtful discussion of street harassment. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, disabalism, classism, and sexism will not be tolerated. Disclaimer: SSH may use any stories submitted to the blog in future scholarly publications on street harassment.
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