The guys who shout at me from car windows while I'm riding my bike, that is. It happened again today.He could have been yelling "Nice t!ts!" or "Get out of the road, btch!" (both of which have been yelled at me on previous occasions), or even "Eureka! I've just solved Fermat's last theorem!" The fact that the yeller was leaning out the passenger window to look at the yell-ee (me) as he passed implied to me that he was expecting some sort of response. But of course, the magic of the doppler effect (bike = 15 mph; car = 35 mph) turned his words into an aural smear.
Somehow, I don't think I'm missing much.
7 comments:
Here's what they are yelling:
"Dr. Notorious . . . I took your class and loved it so muuuuccchhh!!! Thank youuuuu!"
My word verification is Maryos. It's the new Catholic cereal!
Martha
Haha! At least they know you exist. Sometimes biking can be frightening if drivers are just not paying attention to the fact that you need to respect bikes the same way as cars...
Unless he's shouting the meaning of life I agree with you on that last part.
The topic of street harrassment was being discussed a week or so ago at Alas, A Blog, and one of the commenters reported having some d00d shout at her: ”you look peaceful!”
I think that the best response to such comments is a raised middle finger.
It can be quite easily understood!
(My favorites are the kissy noises. Like I am riding my bike purely for some d00d's amusement.)
This used to happen to me when I biked more regularly back in the mid-90s. It stopped around the time I turned 30, which I attributed to age. (Not that I was respected more, but that it just wasn't fun to hassle me because I wasn't obviously a young young woman any more, and I think dirtbags who hassle women they don't know on the street tend to go for easy targets.)
Now that I think of it, that's about the time that I moved away from big cities and started commuting to work in a car. Duh! (I ride my bike around Potterville, which is a pretty sleepy small town, but I'm not in the fray like you are.)
Strange. I've been hearing a lot lately about women being yelled at by men in cars -- sometimes bikers like yourself, sometimes other drivers or pedestrians.
I ask you: is this a new epidemic in our country, akin to rude Senators and rappers? Is the spirit of the age so angry that people long to shout at *anyone* just to hear their own voices?
I get yelled at while driving all the time. I blame it on the fact that I drive with my windows down and drive a bright colored sports car. The worst is, it always gets me to thinking something is wrong with my car. Like am I leaking fluids and I just don't it? Occasionally I can understand them ("Nice car!") but usually it's total gibberish. Sometimes I get handmotions, and not graphic ones, just incomprehensible ones. Like some guy who yelled at me to get my attention than make a drinking hand motion (was he drunk?) I try not to let it bother me, but it does get to me.
Post a Comment