MugaSofer comments on LW Women- Minimizing the Inferential Distance - Less Wrong

58 [deleted] 25 November 2012 11:33PM

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Comment author: MugaSofer 30 November 2012 09:31:53AM 4 points [-]

I'm just not sure what you think their motivation in this is, if not some sort of instinctual male delight in humiliating women.

No offense, here, I'm genuinely asking. I'm sure it's unpleasant to suffer this sort of BS, and I certainly don't condone it. I just doubt the perpetrators are actually motivated by your discomfort.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 30 November 2012 01:45:14PM 5 points [-]

I'm not sure that it's instinctual-- the amount of catcalling has a lot of local variation.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 December 2012 06:29:35AM 3 points [-]

Well, yes. I'm arguing against that.

Comment author: bbleeker 30 November 2012 10:52:58AM 4 points [-]

I don't know about instinctual male delight. But yes, some people do like to make others suffer, probably because it makes them feel powerful and in control. Catcalling is just a male way of doing that. I'm shy and timid, and used to be even more so back when I was in school, and there I was more often bothered by the girls, who used to surround me and say nasty hurtful things about/to me (that I fortunately don't remember).

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 December 2012 05:51:00AM 2 points [-]

Oh, I see. Sorry, it's just that such assumptions about men are relatively common in our society, and can actually be more common in otherwise progressive communities.

While, again, I can't claim to direct knowledge of these people's motivations, have you considered that they may have been motivated by status concerns rather than pure evil? Not that such motivations are impossible, of course, it just seems unlikely that all such actions are rooted in pure schadenfreude.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 01 December 2012 12:52:30PM 5 points [-]

One way of increasing one's (felt?) status is by proving that one can get away with making other people feel bad.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 December 2012 02:09:06PM 2 points [-]

Good point.

... but that's a rather different explanation to "some people do like to make others suffer [...] Catcalling is just a male way of doing that", isn't it?

Comment author: bbleeker 03 December 2012 06:02:34AM 2 points [-]

Yes, I think you are right, it probably is more about status.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 30 November 2012 01:42:55PM 0 points [-]

The situation is complicated by the fact that a lot of women try to ignore being catcalled. I have no idea whether men who catcall believe they're being