UK: College women warned against whistling at workers while they face sex offender status if they do same

Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2008-06-22 23:05

Story here. Excerpt:

'Officials at West Kent College in Tonbridge, Kent, sent an email to all pupils warning that the behaviour was "totally unacceptable", and saying any students caught harassing contractors would face disciplinary action.
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The email read: "It has come to the attention of the college that some female students have been making comments to, or whistling at, the builders both whilst on site and as they walk around the campus.
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Meanwhile new laws could see wolf-whistling builders placed on the sex offenders register. The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill will create a new offence of "communicating indecently", punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

The legislation is intended to punish sexual harassment by text, emails and letters, but ministers also aim to include sexually explicit comments to strangers. It is expected that the law would only apply to persistent offenders.'

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Comments

There are a couple simple solutions to prevent being harassed by e-mail.

You can delete the message without opening it. Or, you can block/screen out any inbound messages from a specific sender.

We live in interesting times, when you can be prosecuted for harassing a "person" you have never met, who exists only as words on a screen.

I noted with amusement that the article stated that none of the male builders who had been the objects of female wolf-whistles had filed any complaints.

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Submitted by Roy on Mon, 2008-06-23 01:36

"At the moment, workmen who repeatedly make obscene comments to passers-by can be convicted of a breach of the peace."

Why did the article do a 180 and mention all of this stuff about the workers going to jail for 10 years if they whistle? I thought the whole issue was that the workers were the ones being whistled at.

Same "crime" but women get a warning and men get jail.

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Submitted by WakeUp on Mon, 2008-06-23 23:10

As is often the case, it boils down to the terms being used. "Wolf-whistling" refers to an intricate art practiced by males over the centuries, so has to do with oppression and men's power over women. Whereas the "comments", "noises" or whatever, by women directed toward the workers, is not called wolf-whistling and besides is a more recent phenomenon, which in part represents the liberation of women from Victorian sexual mores (and of course oppression).

See how everything fits into place so nicely?

-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Tue, 2008-06-24 09:11