Quote:
Originally Posted by C Dick
Some female friends of mine ride in Toronto every year. Usually I go too, but I was not able to this year. Generally they have a great time. But this year they were very upset, the guys at the start of the ride, before they were on bikes were swarming them very closely, trampling on their bikes, holding their phones within inches of their bodies, etc. They feel very unsafe and upset.
Anyone who thinks it is ok, or not harassment for guys to act that way needs to give their head a shake. And the bottom line is that they likely won't do the ride again, because of the bad experience. And these are not exactly feminazis, they do the ride because they love attention and being naked. So you can be as sanctimoniously right as you want, but when you drive all the women away, it spoils it for everyone. I really don't know what changed to make this year worse than prior years. But it is a bad trend.
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This sort of behaviour is absolutely out of order and no one in their right mind would condone it. The issue I personally have had is being hounded and called a perv when behaving in what I know is an entirely respectful manner.
The feminazis of Brighton essentially treat all straight clothed men taking snaps in exactly the same way, be they the unsavoury idiots who clearly overstep the mark and make people (men and women) feel uncomfortable, or serious photographers clearly only there to cover the event. If you're a woman, you can be as intrusive as you like. If you're naked and taking part in the ride...ditto. If you're a gay man, naked or clothed, the same. Three guys can stand there masturbating each other in the painting area and be none too subtle about it - no one bats an eye.
I've just been looking at some snaps from Brighton where the subjects frequently look ill at ease, clearly being the subject of unwanted attention. Who would want pictures like that? I personally only ever try to get shots of people enjoying themselves, happy, loving the event, waving, flying flags and such. Be it at WNBR or anything else. Defending your right to take pictures in a public place is absolutely not the same thing as saying you should be able to do whatever you like. A nice balance on the middle ground is needed. That's happened a few times, notably Brighton 2014 and 2015, London 2016 and last year. The intrusive idiots need to be clamped down upon. But the feminazis are clearly unable to tell them apart from everyone else there to spectate and take a few pictures.