Men's Intrusion, Women's Embodiment by Fiona Vera-Gray

Author:Fiona Vera-Gray [Vera-Gray, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317360100
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-07-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘You’ve got a face like shit’:4 insults and threats

One of the unexpected findings from the initial conversations was the extent of insulting and/or threatening comments: experienced by almost half of participants (n = 23). Of these, over half (n = 13) had experienced this type of intrusion more than once, with over a quarter (n = 6) explicitly recounting multiple incidents. The range and contexts of insulting or threatening comments is largely absent from the literature on ‘street harassment’, demonstrating how terminology combines with mainstream framings of the phenomenon as complimentary or as sexual harassment to hide the extent of men’s intrusion. Participants understood insults and threats to be practiced by men both on a retaliatory basis after women’s refusal to participate in an intrusive encounter was expressed verbally or through the body, and also arbitrarily. Insults were directed at women’s bodies as deficient in some way, most often in regards to their weight.

I’ve been called fat so many times, by [male] strangers. Slut, I’ve had that too.

(Taryn)

I was walking down past this pub and there were these middle aged men outside and they shouted out ‘stick insect’ to me … I just remember it was a really nice sunny day and I was just walking along and it was a really weird thing to say but I remember the look on his face was horrible, like I was really unattractive.

(Anna)

I’ve had other incidents where people have been really insulting, like called me fat and stuff out of a car window … I think that sort of thing definitely – my self confidence, from people saying things like that, definitely has damaged it a bit. Just because when it’s a stranger as well it feels like my body offends you that much that you need to tell me that I’m unattractive to you, why do you need to tell me that?

(Lucy)

Women also spoke of appearance-related abusive comments that did not focus on weight but still pronounced an uninvited negative evaluation. Jane was insulted after a man approached her in public.

I was going to a bar with a friend and I had a guy ask me if I wanted to go with him and I said ‘no,’ and he said ‘well fuck you, you’re ugly anyway’.

(Jane)

Anne, who along with Ginger spoke of experiencing regular comments from unknown men about her red hair, spoke about experiencing a range of abusive comments from unknown men.

Someone called me crab face. They pointed and went ‘crab face’ and it didn’t make sense. That was the biggest thing about it. I think I spent a long time thinking about that one, trying to work out what it was. But the ones that do affect me I think the most emotionally are when people shout out comments about your appearance. Things like ‘oi ugly’ … ‘Oi bitch’, I’ve been called that.

(Anne)

The range of insults used also illustrates the grounding of such practices in misogyny. Where comments were not based on women’s bodies, they revolved around archetypal gendered

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