And Lara and Lauredhel, I understand your points completely, as I had this exchange in the comments section once upon a time with a respected co-Blamer, LMYC, who brought up the issue of women who were physically challenged, elderly, had kids with them, etc. I’m still single, as well as tall, scary, and I’ve always worked out, so the perspective I’m coming from IS biased. But please note that I offered a few non-rock-based suggestions, and I fully support collective action such as photo-taking and stepping in for other women even if I don’t know them. Any action is good action. In reference to the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Program (thanks for the links!), I was a bit surprised, because I assumed everyone operated under this mandate. I always have. It’s one of the inherent traits of a shit-disturber ;)

Lauredhel, in quoting me, I hope you didn’t misunderstand my post as saying that women should throw rocks?
I could just be tired :P

Dude, “leering,” as practiced by the referenced leerer, was, I thought, explained rather well in the post that accompanies the photo under discussion. O why do I bother writing these things?

Yeah, it was. Sorry for being an oblivious fuckwit!

PS I could not detect any blockquote issues. I love it when shit fixes itself!

The indented quote should end after “It feels like leering and it is leering.” At least for me, the whole rest of the comment is also indented.

Dude, “leering,” as practiced by the referenced leerer, was, I thought, explained rather well in the post that accompanies the photo under discussion. O why do I bother writing these things?

PS I could not detect any blockquote issues. I love it when shit fixes itself!

PhysioProf:imagine you were somewhere, anywhere, and a person was staring at you without quitting. They just locked their eyes on you and wouldn’t look away. Would that not make you uncomfortable? Now imagine you’re a female and you get that shit from men all the time, everywhere, from a mixed bag of sources. Maybe to you he’s ‘just looking’ but when you’re me men staring at you for even the slightest period of time is intimidating, occasionally frightening and absolutely uncomfortable. There is no such thing as men ‘just looking’ at me. It feels like leering and it is leering.

Got it. Thanks for explaining that.

And I can sort of see that in Twisty’s photo. The dude doesn’t appear to be incidentally glancing, but rather purposefully looking. His gaze is not in transition from one spot to another, but seems fixed.

Is that what you see that is characteristic of leering?

Mearl I totally respect you for your, heh, hands on approach to dealing with harassers. Kicking their asses is always good. But if a woman feels threatened or scared by some asshole or creep with his pants down in public, can we blame her?

For people who think women just need to step up and throw rocks, consider that a lot of women are in absolutely no position to even begin to think about physically defending themselves. Walking around the world with a tiring, hurting chronic illness and a baby in my arms sure brought that home.

Making a decision not to increase the risk of you or your loved ones getting raped and/or killed is a perfectly rational way to go about life. It’s not collaboration.

Just sayin’.