This morning's commute (the 'ugh' edition)

LFGSS is a male-dominated forum, for the purposes of discussing a male-dominated activity. This can lead to it becoming inadvertently (and sometimes deliberately) unwelcoming to women. The ladies forum is designed to address that by providing somewhere for women to talk about things that affect them specifically, and above all to be a positive place where women can support and be supported by other women. Pointless arguments like this undermine these aims and I've tolerated it in this thread so far (as it's quite a good case study, given the wider subject matter), but I won't be continuing to tolerate it.

i'd just like to reiterate OP for the dual aims of starting this thread:

"however: i don't want to just be sad that it's shit and it happens. i'd like a thread where people can share the outrageous crap someone tried with them on their commute, because i think it serves a dual purpose. people who are subjected to it feel like they're not alone, and people to whom it never happens get to see how commonplace and unpleasant it is."

you'll notice that there isn't a third one saying "have to defend myself and my opinion from someone from a privileged position who hasn't had the same experience and who decides, based on and citing no personal experience whatsoever apart from tenuous links to "friends who don't think like i do" that my reaction to a daily unnecessary unpleasantness (to put it mildly) is an invalid overreaction". that's not what this thread is for.

i welcome and invite conversation on the matter but you seem unable to accept how unwanted and nasty these situations are. i assume it's never even happened to you, not once, not with malicious or sexualised intent, however mildly, so who are you to say how women should feel or that they're overreacting? if, perhaps, your voice had been joined by others it could in theory form a valid critique (or at least lend more legitimacy to a lone uneducated/troll). but it hasn't been. there's a reason the posters in this thread, male and female, feel so strongly about this and i'm really impressed that people have taken time out of their day to try and explain things multiple times to you