Honking: offensive or not?
Apr. 18th, 2006 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylHere's a tricky question: if you're out running and a passing car honks you, is it offensive? I think it probably is. Here are some random musings:
It seems to me that there are two reasons for being honked. In the first case, it's possible that the driver of the car is a fellow runner and seeing someone staggering along pulls at their sense of solidarity, causing them to honk in an attempt to convey sense of encouragement. I find this unlikely.
The second case seems more potentially offensive: seeing someone with a ponytail and legs worthy of a young Baryshnikov out running of a gloomy evening, the average honker, unable to resolve the hirsute limbs or lack of chestage in the poor light, responds with a pavlovian reflex worthy of Mayor Quimby himself. This seems to me to be offensive, whichever way you cut it: either they've mistaken you for a drag queen or they're an unreconstructed chauvinist for whom the last 30 years of feminism might as well not have happened. Or maybe I've got it entirely wrong. Maybe it's not offensive. Maybe I should feel flattered at the attention...
It seems to me that there are two reasons for being honked. In the first case, it's possible that the driver of the car is a fellow runner and seeing someone staggering along pulls at their sense of solidarity, causing them to honk in an attempt to convey sense of encouragement. I find this unlikely.
The second case seems more potentially offensive: seeing someone with a ponytail and legs worthy of a young Baryshnikov out running of a gloomy evening, the average honker, unable to resolve the hirsute limbs or lack of chestage in the poor light, responds with a pavlovian reflex worthy of Mayor Quimby himself. This seems to me to be offensive, whichever way you cut it: either they've mistaken you for a drag queen or they're an unreconstructed chauvinist for whom the last 30 years of feminism might as well not have happened. Or maybe I've got it entirely wrong. Maybe it's not offensive. Maybe I should feel flattered at the attention...
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maybe you should cut your hair...
Date: 2006-04-19 12:23 am (UTC)Re: maybe you should cut your hair...
Date: 2006-04-19 06:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-19 10:09 am (UTC)Excellent.
Never happened to me.
Consider yourself lucky,
anywhere closer to the Mediteranean coast the driver would have stopped the car, opened the window and whistled loudly.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-19 07:38 pm (UTC)Until you've been mistaken for a chick and honked by a passing car whilst out running, you haven't lived.
There's a classic moment like that in Mayored to the Mob (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayored_to_the_Mob), where Quimby is explaining Homer's new duties as a bodyguard: "Just remember. You represent the office of the mayor. So always comport yourself in a manner befitting ... quick! Honk at that broad!" Classic stuff.