Just had this message from a friend and I am raging! “Think my running journey is over... Didn't make it2 10k as ran past a man who whistled at me & then stuck his foot out. Couldn't dodge it fast enough so went flying. Not sure I'll have the confidence to go out again
Being a woman feels really hard sometimes... 😔😔” Picture of cut lips and hand.
I have been cat called so many times running, and once a young man slapped my bum from behind and tried to pull me into the bushes, but I think this is worse. Why the fuck is women feeling powerful through running something men feel compelled to try and take away?
@purplepadma JFC. I hope ypur friend isn't badly injured. I repeatedly have had guys in cars scream to scare me as I go out to bring the garbage bins in, so apparently existing in public is a problem for women. It pisses me off no end that we have to put up with this crap.
@yianiris excuse me? You give misogyny a free pass then berate a woman for calling it out? Are you sure you’re safe to have around women? If YOU THINK you are, learn to respect women
@purplepadma
I'm incredibly sorry and can only offer that the effect on me of reading this is that during my run yesterday I was SUPER-careful not to pass too close to any of the women also out running, lest they feel threatened by me. I already try not to come up fast behind women walking alone at night (I'm a total powderpuff but I look scary) and now I've added "women running" to the "people I try not to accidentally menace" list in my head.
@purplepadma Oh no, I'm so sorry for your friend!
I recently joined a running group that is open to anyone except cis men. We went for a run yesterday, 12 of us, and it felt so nice, and safe, and joyous. At the same time, it makes me furious that we have to look for safety in numbers. It makes me furious that I have to worry about where and when I run, and what I'm wearing.
Really hard to know if reporting to police is viable or not given the extra spoons that takes and the risk of victim blaming from them.
Fuck men who behave like this.
Other men who are not shits need to not minimise women's experiences and need to talk to other men another about this stuff being done to women by men and calling out their pals if they show any level of sexism cos it is all part of a wider pattern.
@NatalyaD It’s so hard to find the strength to report, risk not being taken seriously… tricky to provide a useful description when it all happens so quickly. I’m just gutted for her as she was finding running so empowering and such a great way to manage her mental health
@purplepadma All part of the global altright /authoritarian movement to diminish women and erase rights. Dehumanizing women is no different than dehumanizing brown and black people. Silence is not an option.
@helenclayton I hope she will. The worst part for me is that she struggles with her mental health and she was finding running really empowering for coping with a divorce and the challenges of lone parenthood. I’m livid that this man has taken that sense of power away from her
@purplepadma@DamonHD I was just trying to find words to reply to your previous reply but I can’t. It’s just awful. I really hope your friend is ok after this. I can understand if it puts her off running but I hope not. And I hope the man that did this is traced…and before he does it again.
@helenclayton@DamonHD When that man spanked me and tried to pull me away from the trail I dialled 999 and they sent two women police officers because they categorised it as sexual assault, but it was all so quick that I couldn’t give a useful description (white teenager, black hoodie, bike). I still thought it important to report it in case there was a pattern or he did worse
@purplepadma That's really sickening. There are unfortunately lots of men who just don't see women as full human beings. He might have seen here as powerful and wanted to bring her down, but he might just as easily have seen her as a object of amusement.
@purplepadma Holy shit, that's awful. Joining you in rage.
If she has the capacity to report it, I hope something is done about that arsehole (though I also hope the next person he does it to puts him in hospital).
@purplepadma it’s fucked up and awful. In my 20s I started running to keep some female colleagues company just so they didn’t have to put up with that crap.
@luke I wish I had someone to run with, but I don’t. I have advertised on FB and Nextdoor but no one took me up on it. I have never had any trouble since I moved to Wales but I do sometimes feel a little nervous because I am running where there are no other people, so if I was accosted there’d be no one to help
@Sharonbw Every so often a woman is abducted and killed while running and it’s always made out in the press that it was her own fault for running in the wrong place/alone/at the wrong time/not varying her route etc. presumably the answer is for women to stay indoors
@purplepadma Oh my! I am so sorry for your friend's horrible experience and yours. I hope someone saw him or got it on video.
I'd like to believe I'd turn around and kick the mofo in the nuts, but I'm betting the shock would have rendered me incapable of responding.
Not far from us a young woman who ran every day was grabbed and killed by her neighbor who caught on to her routine. I haven't run outside since. I use my treadmill. What a sad statement to have to make.
@purplepadma wow... I've never experienced anything like this when running. The worst was being chased by someone's off leash Yorkie. I may have been cat called, but wouldn't know since I have music on when I run. I would have been in jail because I would most likely have punched that guy.
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