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news
Penarth Road, Cardiff via Google Street View.PNG"Angry and fed up" female cyclist confronts male driver who made sexual remarks at her
A female cyclist in Cardiff has filmed the moment she confronted a motorist who had directed sexist remarks at her shortly beforehand.
Nanw Beard, who posted the footage to YouTube, said that the incident had left her “angry and fed up” and called on men to challenge such behaviour whenever they encountered it, reports Nation.Cymru, which has posted the video to YouTube.
The 30 year old said she was riding along Penarth Road when a motorist drew alongside her and told her she “should have a health warning because your backside is going to cause an accident.”
She said: “When I told him that was disgusting he drove away laughing. I later caught up with him and that’s the interaction that you see in the video.
After she caught yup with the driver, she repeatedly asked him, “Do you want to say that again?” and told him that his remarks were “disgusting and despicable,” but he dismissed her with a wave of his hand.
“This was the second occasion of harassment I’d received that afternoon having had another man shout that he was going to ‘f*ck me in the arse’,” she continued.
“I’ve got to the point where I’m so angry and fed up with the constant barrage of street harassment I face as a woman, especially while I’m alone.
“It’s been a part of life I’ve just had to accept,” she continued. “However, reading stories of women choosing not to accept this anymore has made me feel empowered.
“This man had what I presume to be his son in the car. By setting this example he’s telling young men that this behaviour is ok.
“I couldn’t miss the opportunity to call the behaviour out. I was feeling vulnerable and intimidated following the previous encounter with the first man.
“However, I felt that if he was on camera, it was unlikely that he would get out of the car or harass me further.”
She said that when she accused the motorist of sexual harassment, he laughed at her.
“This made me question myself, but I know that this is a common tactic when such men are called out for their behaviour.”
Unwanted attention from male motorists and even fellow cyclists is one barrier to more women cycling, and Ms Beard added: “In terms of how we stop this happening, I think that the responsibility lies principally with men.
“Challenge the behaviour when you see it on the street, in bars, in conversations at work or anywhere. By not speaking out, you’re enabling it.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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38 comments
I see the story has made the BBC website now...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57427696
Several years ago, I tried to intervene when a work van pulled up at a junction and the occupants began hurling sexist comments at two girls on bikes. As soon as the lights changed, they drove alongside me trying to intimidate me instead and tighten me up against parked cars. I'm not saying I wouldn't do the same again, but, to call out this behaviour can just put someone else in the firing line.
It was always thus. All to often we read about people who decide to get involved getting injured or worse. Equally, we read of people being attacked in broad daylight or on trains and people turning the other way.
Good on you for helping; plenty would not.
Driver thought he was being cheeky. Was called out for it. Should have apologised, or better still, kept it to himself.
So depressing though.
you know what, car drivers, I'm really not interested in hearing anything you may have to say from your car. Leave me alone, get away from me, don't try to talk to me.
that's it; that's the post.
Another driver with the medical condition, Biggus Carrus - Littleus Dickus.
“It’s been a part of life I’ve just had to accept,”
That ANYONE has to say this in 2021 boils my piss beyond belief. Any scumbag speaking to Women like that should be labelled a Sex Pest on the spot. No ifs or buts - any lesser action acheives nothing and enables them to do it again.
A sex pest? I understood what he said as meaning the exact opposite. Still completely scummy, but he was criticising her for the size of her arse - too large (as he perceived it) - rather than making sexual suggestions.
FWIW, I don't see much point in the poor woman responding with 'you're despicable/disgusting' if it was sexual harrassment. That's just rewarding the sexual harasser with female attention they wouldn't otherwise get. Much better to give a graphic - doesn't have to be true - description of the state of her last used tampon, or heaviness of flow, etc.
But if you really want to wind them up, just say 'that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me since I started dressing as a woman'.
I haven't watched the video, but I took the original comment not to be a criticism of her figure but a cack-handed come-on along the lines of, "men are going to be looking at your arse instead of keeping their eyes on the road".
Either way, she wasn't inviting appraisal so he should have kept his thoughts to himself. Poor sap probably believes he might get lucky one day with his boorish line of patter.
"Poor sap probably believes he might get lucky one day with his boorish line of patter."
I hope you're right. That would mean we have some hope of stopping most of that kind of thing, if we can just explain to the idiots that it is never, ever going to work.
Argues a sexual harasser is not a sex pest. Interesting.
Not a "poor woman". A woman going about her lawful business who is on the receiving end of unwanted sexual attention. It's pretty standard behaviour that many if not most women have to contend with on a day to day basis.
How about supporting rather than criticising her response? She's not the villain here....
You can't possibly have inferred those things from anything I said. Why are you quoting my comment?
I can and I did.
Unless, in fact, I got you wrong and you do actually see this as sexual harassment, and this individual is, therefore, a sex pest.
Unless, in fact, you don't pity this "poor woman" but actually realise this is the standard stuff that pretty much all women have to put up with from wankers like that day to day.
Unless, in fact, you weren't mansplaining how she should have dealt with sexual harassment.
As for the comments about periods.... Fair enough, you have me. I really don't know what to make of that....
Making comments on a woman's body is sexual harrassment whether it's intended as an insult or a compliment; in this case he's harrassing her by telling her that her body isn't up to some sexual standard he has set, in its way that's even nastier than some prick thinking he's being complimentary. In any case, it's still pestering a woman with remarks about a sexualized part of her anatomy, so yes, a sex pest.
It is astonishing. My daughter tells me small interactions happen surprisingly frequently, she takes no notice as that is what they want. Some even happened when she was 15. I wonder how these fellas would react to being called paedos as well as sex pests...
Yep. I saw a video of a youtuber who decided to list out what she went through daily when travelling to school in uniform. The comments and even attempted "gropes" would have these self same people shouting out paedo at the person if reported on in their favourite Scum or Heil newspaper (right next to page 3 or opposite a story of a famous 15yo in a swimsuit with "Soon to be a woman" sub comment.)
A while back here was a video project (I think Hollaback was the name of the project) in NY where a woman just walked around. She had a male friend covertly filming from a few paces in front. The constant "low level" harassment she received was sickening.
She didn't interact at all and was just walking whilst looking ahead, but had men constantly hitting on her, catcalling whistling, and abusing. It was pretty sickening. The discomfort and fear that was visible on her face, in spite of the fact that she wasn't alone, was palpable, and horrible to see.
The fact is that this is not isolated to grown women (not that it would be fine if it was), which is f*cking obvs on a moment's reflection - these wank-socks, let's face it, aren't about to do any due diligence regarding age.....
It's 2021 FFS. Having said that at no point in my life would I have thought that was a normal or acceptable thing to say
Yes it is 2021 and this is sadly the state of our society, this cnt is probably the kind of person to tell people they are too woke... there are too many people like this who feel they can act like this these days.
"it's good to see proper male/female nouns being used in the article."
It does seem a strange story about discrimination to post about a moan about this type of thing? Oh, yes, the next line shows you do have discrimination in you.
Dude, this was about abuse, intimidation and harassment. Not sure how even you managed to segway some transphobia into that...
Aaah, that's how. Self deception... Have a great evening dude
Trump supporter remember. I wonder if his trousers are on backwards now in support of the orange idol.
Standard troll behaviour from Nige. Say something seemingly supportive then segway into something unrelated to start a flame war.
Getting tired of it.
I'll bet he felt big in front of his son, being called out for being a prick by a woman cyclist. Even better when he gets home and his son tells his wife and daughter.
Well done Nanw, that was both brave and appropriate, but why obscure his face and the reg? Nasty little people in big cars should get what they deserve.
#not-all-4X4s....
I think they're being very generous in obscuring his face and reg. Good on her for challenging though - should go to the police, especially if she has footage of the verbal assault itself
accepting you need evidence, but sometimes it feels like a shame we live in an era of "video or it didn't happen".
"and you're quite sure you didn't speak to the lady at all, sir?"
Quite. I did jury service a while ago, and the judge was quite clear that we could take one person's word over another on our judgement of who was credible when deciding guilty or not guilty.
Whereas video evidence is clearly useful in helping to determine facts, the reliance that seems to be now placed on it is counterproductive.
accepting you need evidence, but sometimes it feels like a shame we live in an era of "video or it didn't happen".
Pfff! Kids stuff!! Any old police force can deny something happened when there's no video! It takes Master Deny-ers like Lancashire Constabulary to deny something happened when there's immaculate and indisputable video evidence. The technique they favour is known as 'Ignore All Online Incident Reports from Cyclists'. Works for them...so far!
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