Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site reed.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!reed!ellen From: ellen@reed.UUCP (Ellen Eades) Newsgroups: net.women,net.bicycle Subject: Bicycles, Women, Violence and Hatred Message-ID: <1684@reed.UUCP> Date: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:13:43 EDT Article-I.D.: reed.1684 Posted: Sat Jul 13 11:13:43 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 01:17:10 EDT Distribution: usa Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon Lines: 38 Xref: linus net.women:5944 net.bicycle:1074 This is a variation on the standard "Bicycles, Violence and Hatred" theme, and also a modification of part of my statements in net.women regarding "Last Night." I've been biking to work now for over a month daily and I have noticed that *every* *single* *day* *without* *fail* I am harassed by some asshole who wants to hang out the window of his car and prove he's macho by yelling some obscenity at me. I don't know whether this is a comment on the insecurity of males upon seeing a female bicyclist or what, but it's the truth. So ... In my discussion of verbal harassment in net.women I commented that I would not yell obscenities back at the man who exposed himself on a street corner to me (in my car). I'm discovering that you can't be politically correct while traveling down a street at 30mph (what a discovery), and that there are, indeed, times when all I want to do is flip the guy off and let the incident pass from my now-untroubled mind. I haven't yet run into anyone who has circled the block and come back to "get me." Besides, after five weeks of this stuff, I don't care about convincing the asshole to respect me; I don't respect him. So yesterday when I was harassed I gave the guy the finger, said "F*** you," and kept going. To the idiot who yelled "Nice tits," I came back with "I didn't grow them for you!" It felt *wonderful*. Ellen Eades -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Who's been repeating all that hard stuff to you?" "I read it in a book," said Alice. - - - - - - - - - - - - - tektronix!reed!ellen OR tektronix!reed!motel6!ellen