Here's an article that - at least for me - doesn't pass the sniff test. A harrassment study finds that 65% of all women have experienced "street harassment", and 9% of them have "been forced to do something sexual".

Like the college rape figures, this just doesn't compute. If 9% of women were being randomly assaulted, I would know women amongst my friends, colleagues and family that it had happened to. The only thing I have ever heard mentioned are wolf whistles by constructions workers, when a cute teen or 20-something walks by.

Your take?

Oops, I apparently forgot to include: Link to harrassment study

Back in college, my fiancee and I were taking the grey dog (yeah, we were poor, eat me you destination-wedding trust fund babies) and she was ahead of me by about ten feet.

Three guys were just about jumping out of their seats to get next to her when one of them said "Shit, that's her boyfriend!" as I walked up.

Makes me wonder what would have happened if I hadn't been with her.

So yeah, it may not be actual touching / groping / rape / direct sexual remarks, but women get a LOT of unwanted attention in public.

Very Biased Survey, the Author was on the AAUW(American Association of University Women) team that found 48% of Students had been sexually harassed. That study found you were sexually harassed if you had been laughed at by a member of the opposite sex and felt bad about it so if you slipped in the hall and many people laughed at you, including some of the opposite sex, you were sexually harassed. The study was also commissioned for the purpose of supporting the thesis of the organization, calling into question it's objectivity. The report also talks about leading the respondents,

"While in the opening to the survey we encouraged people to reflect before answering the
question about whether or not they had experienced harassment, and we gave several examples of types of harassment to prompt them, not everyone may have remembered incidents they experienced decades earlier or identified them as harassment."

And the definition of harassment in the report is IMO over-broad yet weirdly limiting

I have always maintained that those, in the AAUW survey, defined as non harassed were lying, because almost everyone has been laughed at by the opposite sex and felt bad about it.

Very Biased Survey, the Author was on the AAUW(American Association of University Women) team that found 48% of Students had been sexually harassed. That study found you were sexually harassed if you had been laughed at by a member of the opposite sex and felt bad about it so if you slipped in the hall and many people laughed at you, including some of the opposite sex, you were sexually harassed. The study was also commissioned for the purpose of supporting the thesis of the organization, calling into question it's objectivity. The report also talks about leading the respondents,

"While in the opening to the survey we encouraged people to reflect before answering the
question about whether or not they had experienced harassment, and we gave several examples of types of harassment to prompt them, not everyone may have remembered incidents they experienced decades earlier or identified them as harassment."

And the definition of harassment in the report is IMO over-broad yet weirdly limiting

I have always maintained that those, in the AAUW survey, defined as non harassed were lying, because almost everyone has been laughed at by the opposite sex and felt bad about it.

sorry for the double post, I blame the evil empire and its browser .... explorer

@"but women get a LOT of unwanted attention in public"

That's true but 'unwanted attention' is not the same as 'harrassment', and it's disturbingly psychotic to think of it that way ... e.g. if an ugly guy asks you out, that is 'unwanted attention' but it is not 'harrassment'.

"it's disturbingly psychotic to think of it that way"

Thanks, Lobster, it's times like these when a trained psychiatrist like yourself can really put things in perspective for the lay person!

I don't know if that was sarcasm, but if you can think of a more accurate way to describe the mental state corresponding to e.g. the now infamous Rebecca Watson reaction in an elevator to being asked by a guy if she wants to join him for coffee, by all means, go ahead. I'm not a trained psychiatrist, but I do know what the medical definition of 'psychosis' is.

(If I'm being overly-defensive, sorry, I can't gauge the tone of your comment!)

Politics is the art of looking for trouble finding it whether it exists or not diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy. -- Ernest Benn