the joys of public transportation
May. 18th, 2012 08:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
martasficI took a huge bag of books down to the Fordham library today - last day of the semester, and we'd gotten to the "we won't renew these anymore, so get them back to us NOW" stage of library communications. I ended up taking a bus to campus on account of the weight. Definitely the right call, though it was a lovely day and normally I'd walk.
(Well, not all of the books. I forgot one and the other, I need for a paper I'm working on. Here's hoping the $.10/day will motivate me to finish this weekend.)
Thing is, there were these two high schoolers at the back of the bus, practically yelling lewd comments at each other. They were jerks; not so you'd feel unsafe, but just incredibly offensive to the other passengers. Occasionally I'd look over at them, by reflex, and whenever I did that one of them grabbed at his crotch and readjusted himself, then would cock his head and look right at me. I didn't mean to get into a thing with him, but it was a fairly empty bus and so hard to ignore.
I don't want to make generalizations about the gender based on two sixteen-year-old guys, but it disturbs me that this is how these soon-to-be-grown-men treated a single woman and a mother traveling with an infant (the only other passenger on the bus). Is this what most guys (or even a sizable portion) think of women most of the time, and are just better at covering up? It was degrading in the worst way.
And then I got to get off and turn in my books and scan in my readings for my summer class, like an adult quasi-professional. But something about those teenagers interacting with me on that level has staying power. It doesn't seem fair somehow; do guys have to deal with this, either from other guys or from women? :-S
(Well, not all of the books. I forgot one and the other, I need for a paper I'm working on. Here's hoping the $.10/day will motivate me to finish this weekend.)
Thing is, there were these two high schoolers at the back of the bus, practically yelling lewd comments at each other. They were jerks; not so you'd feel unsafe, but just incredibly offensive to the other passengers. Occasionally I'd look over at them, by reflex, and whenever I did that one of them grabbed at his crotch and readjusted himself, then would cock his head and look right at me. I didn't mean to get into a thing with him, but it was a fairly empty bus and so hard to ignore.
I don't want to make generalizations about the gender based on two sixteen-year-old guys, but it disturbs me that this is how these soon-to-be-grown-men treated a single woman and a mother traveling with an infant (the only other passenger on the bus). Is this what most guys (or even a sizable portion) think of women most of the time, and are just better at covering up? It was degrading in the worst way.
And then I got to get off and turn in my books and scan in my readings for my summer class, like an adult quasi-professional. But something about those teenagers interacting with me on that level has staying power. It doesn't seem fair somehow; do guys have to deal with this, either from other guys or from women? :-S
no subject
Date: 2012-05-19 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-19 11:13 am (UTC)But for many of them when they are together with one or more other guys and away from pesky things like people who might know their parents or teachers and SAY something, it's like a license to do all the crude things you see on shows like "Jackass" or "Jersey Shore". And if there had been even ONE adult male on that pus they probably would not have been quite so loud and obnoxious.
Just general observation, of course.