Wednesday 18 April 2012

Things people say…

As I left work yesterday, a group of drunks sipping Stella Artois ('reassuringly expensive') on the street shouted at me that I was a 'Polish C••t'. Obviously I'm a little bemused by this - I'm not remotely Polish. I can only assume that my stylish attire marked me out as not being from round here - i.e. I wasn't wearing stained tracksuit bottoms accessorised by amateur facial tattoos.

So I merely laughed and moved on. If I got upset whenever anyone shouted at me on the street, I'd be a nervous, agoraphobic wreck. Though the David Mitchell catchphrases are dying down.

However, mentioning it on Twitter got a lot of responses from the females in my social circle - they seem to endure abuse everywhere they go. From men, obviously:
It's worse in Birmingham though. No one has tried to grab me here yet.
 I regularly get called fat in the street 
one of my first experiences of the city was a drunken man following me shouting expletives when I didn't tell him my name 
 I went for a run 2shouts of SWEATY TITS 
Is this normal? What a horrible country this must be. What's been shouted at you? How do you deal with it?


6 comments:

Artog said...

I've had the classic "Wanker!" from a souped up Ford Fiesta filled with rat faced baseball cap wearers at least once. I dealt with it by fuming for about 24 hours. It's not all bad though, I was out running the other night and a bloke shouted out "Positive energy" while gesticulating in such a way as to push this positive energy at me.

Connie said...

I have to say, Vole, you're neither Polish nor a c**t. Having never been called a c**t I don't know quite how I would react, but I like to think I would express to the mouthy person in my midst that I'd be very surprised if they even knew what a c**t was. It would probably go downhill from there.

I once had a yob in a small Peugeot shout out 'Suck on this' one night when I was walking my dog. I'm assuming he wasn't offering me a polo, but after that I always walked her in woodland rather than the roads. It seemed safer.

Ewarwoowar said...

Genuinely never had anything shouted at me in the streets. That's either because

A) I live in a decent area and not Wolverhampton

or

B) To quote Dogs Die in Hot Cars (and they do, kids) I'm immune as I...

Take a look in the mirror tonight
There is something that never changes
A face so beautiful if any face could be right
This could be the image of a man and a model for the world

:smug:

The Plashing Vole said...

Artog - I quite often find that being a pedestrian is enough to infuriate drivers. In my worst moments I'd like to wave my salary slip at them and point out that I can afford a car, but choose a better life without one. I never do.

Blossom - presumably these men are all mouth and no trousers. Inadequate.

Ewar - this made me laugh an awful lot.

Alex said...

I'm a bloke and used to have long hair. I had a man shout lewd comments at me from a car while following me before noticing that I wasn't a woman after which he told me I was gay.

I also once had a delightful doppler-effected "wanker" shouted at me for about 15 seconds. Again from a car.

Don't you just love Britain?

The Plashing Vole said...

I had similar things when I had long hair. Also 'grebo'. Been egged a few times by passing yahoos in cars. What a waste of delicious eggie-weggies.