More Observations About Men Who Honk at Women. (Because yeah, I got honked at again today. And whistled at. And it pissed me off.)

• The lone driver is rarely a harasser. I never get a honk from a guy in a car by himself. There’s always at least one more guy, which leads me to believe it’s a “macho-showing-off-for-your-friends” kinda thing.
• Along with that – and I’m going to be really classist here – most harassers seem to be low-income grunts with bad jobs. There always seem to be about four of them packed into a dump truck or moving van. Maybe part of their rationale is that I’m obviously not a laborer.
• Nice guys will sometimes try to rationalize harassers’ behavior by pointing out that they’re “just trying to pay me a compliment.” Because I’m so beautiful that men are instantly compelled to let me know. This theory is crap. I stand on the same street every single morning and I only get harassed when I’m wearing a skirt. How honk-worthy am I seems to have less to do with my objective aesthetic beauty and more to do with how much skin is showing.
• There’s also another frequently-espoused theory that by honking at you men are trying to get your attention because they think you’re nice and they’re so adorably inept that they can’t think of any other way to approach you. Unfortunately this is also crap, as evidenced by the fact that the guys who honked at me this morning waited until they were just past me to toot. They didn’t care about my reaction; in fact, they probably knew I’d be pissed off. They did it to let me know that they’d seen me as a sexual object. Assclowns.

Sorry to rant (and to tar a lot of nice guys with the same brush). I’m just fuming. This is the first day I’ve worn a skirt all week, specifically for this reason. Do you men understand that? Can you imagine how it must feel to have to change your behaviour to avoid harassment? It’s the height of spring here, warm and sunny, and I have to wear drab, body-concealing clothes in order to wait for my carpool in peace. ARRRGGGGHHH.