Nice tits.

So last weekend what I really needed to do was get my car washed.  It's a losing battle, since I park like 200 feet from a freeway.

Under a tree.

But the car gets so filthy, it's really got to be done at least once a month.

Cut to Sunday, as I'm walking past the carwash on my way to a local film screening.  As I'm walking, I'm thinking about the fact that I didn't go to the car wash because I wasn't in the mood to steel myself up for it.

For what, you ask?

For being hit on while I wait for my car.  Which happens more often than not.

To be honest, I usually chalk it up to my (fabulous) ass.  Because that, at least, amuses me.

I try to respond politely; be friendly back, but clearly disinterested.  I usually try to bury myself in a book so as not to be approached, but I have this habit of pausing when I read and looking up while I think.  It's not the end of the world, clearly, being hit on - But then, I'm not at a bar, you know?  I'm just trying to get the damn car washed.  And being hit on while I'm waiting for my car to be washed... Well, I have to steel myself up for it.

So I'm walking past the car wash when I realize that this is actually the reason I like the new place I've been going to for oil changes.  Everyone there is always super polite, and no one there has ever hit on me.  I actually wonder if it's a policy, because anywhere else I've ever gone for an oil change I tend to get hit on.  And frankly, for the level of professionalism at my new place, I really don't care how much the oil change costs.

It's better than putting it off the way I put off the car wash.  (Although, in the case of the car wash, I'm talking about customers rather than employees, so it's not their fault.)

So I'm walking down the street, thinking about all this, and I take a moment to notice and be glad that the streets seem quiet, free of kissy noises, "nice ass!", and that one time a guy actually turned to waggle his tongue through his fingers at me while turning a corner at an intersection.

In fact, I get all the way to the theater with no street harassment.

And, after the screening, I get all the way back to my home intersection.  I'm actually crossing my intersection thinking, Wow, A whole walk to and from with no street harassment!

And in that moment, out a passenger side window, flies:  "Nice tits!"

Comments

[Suzanne]

Damn, I don't know how you deal with that all the time. Is it LA? Generally, not many people in New York say shit like that. And its not like I'm not out there and walking around and noticing how men react to other women, too. I've seen definite double-takes (when a woman passes by and the guys swirl around to follow her when she walks by) and heard comments on how hot people are. And seriously, once some guy told me that he liked my shirt. (Now I am cracking up thinking about how innocuous that is compared to what you deal with, and at the time I didn't even realize he was talking to me.) That's just awful.

[Kim]

I've gotten whistled at a lot... but never nice tits. However, I did get a LOT of whistles last weekend because I was wearing one of M's football jerseys. You know, the kind with HOLES in it??? And I, um, hadn't bothered to put on ANYTHING underneath since I was just running out to get some burgers... and I was walking towards the sun, so I was... well-lit.

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

[Zandria]

Isn't it strange how some people tend to deal with that all the time, and other people not so much? Or maybe it depends on where you live? The only time I encounter that in D.C. is when I walk through an area where mostly Hispanic immigrants live.

[Kimberly]

One day I was with my sister as we waited in line at the drive-thru of a local take-away. As we waited I glanced over to a car wash watching the workers as they rubbed down the cars after being washed. I did noticed that the attendants appeared to be mostly males. What really caught my attention was the way one guy was chatting up a young women as she waited for him to finish up her vehicle so she could go on her way. He was clearly "hitting" on her and I could tell that she was just trying to be nice hoping he would finish up so she could be on her way. My thoughts were that it is a damn shame that a woman can not go out to run errands, or to get her car washed, or any other thing without men thinking it is OK to make sexual advances towards them.

You can have a leftist society where crap like that isn't punished early and as needed in school; you can have neighborhoods where women are respected as a matter of course. You can't have both.

This isn't meant as a criticism of you, but as a criticism of our wonderful society that dreads trampling on a hood's individuality so much that street harassment is commonplace.

For what it's worth, as a man, it angers me that other people with an x and a y on pair 23 of their chromosomes haven't learned a damn thing about manhood. On behalf of men, please accept my apologies.

[Liz]

Better late than never?

Suzanne - It can be pretty bad in L.A., not really sure why that is. Maybe it's that there's people walking, but not *so* many people walking like in NY.

Kim - That is awesome, and totally something I could see myself doing on accident.

Zandria - Yeah, it definitely depends are where you are. And it only happens to me when I'm alone. I walked through my neighborhood with a girlfriend and we were left alone.

Kimberly - Amen.

Anonymous - I can't imagine what you're talking about, since it's the lefter side of the political sphere that actually sees women as whole human beings. It's the right side of the political sphere that teaches the double standards that are at the root of sexual harassment.

Respecting individuality doesn't mean allowing crime.

Personally, I think we'd be better off staying away from definitions of "manhood" and started talking about common courtesy for all.