Hello ladies (current and former) of Lemmy (current) - I’m curious how your experience of the male gaze has changed as you moved in and out of young-woman-hood.

How has your opinion of being seen changed through this process?

  • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.worksOP
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    5 months ago

    I wonder if that stuff ever works and guys hear about a friend of a friend who got a date that way, or if they’re all just independantly shouting into the void.

    I could almost imagine someone responding positively to “nice ass”, but “Bitch” is just obviously never gonna work. That’s some incel energy there.

    • Pandantic [they/them]@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      I think it’s about power or a different mindset (as in, “they will take it as a compliment”). And the “Bitch” was only after I didn’t turn around to look at them when they yelled the “compliment”, I think. They didn’t get the response they wanted so they determined I was a bitch.

      • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.worksOP
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        5 months ago

        I try to do drive by compliments, but not while literally driving … Just stuff like “cool hat!” and walk off so they don’t need to respond or engage with me.

        I would like to be told I have a nice ass, but that’s because it doesn’t happen (even though I think I deserve it). It sounds like being hit on often cheapens it.

        • Pandantic [they/them]@midwest.social
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          5 months ago

          I do drive-by compliments too, especially if someone is sporting a fandom I like. I think it’s different when it’s a stranger complimenting a body feature - it implies sexual attraction which can feel objectifying and, unfortunately in the world we live in, unsafe. I don’t know this person, I just know they felt comfortable enough to anonymously shout a comment about a sexual part of my body, so what else do they feel comfortable enough to do?

          • Clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.worksOP
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            5 months ago

            Gotcha. Yeah, I would never comment on a stranger’s body/face/smell. Even if I don’t mean anything by it, creepy is in the eye of the beholder.