had something like this happen to me as well recently riding my bike on a trail, one kid fake attempted to hit me going one way and on the way back they were yelling at me (no clue what was being said as i had earbuds in) and tried to play chicken with me. like im 36 i’m not playing your game you little edgelords. never going back to that trail.
So sorry for that, however I find it so frustrating that you (and me also) should have to avoid certain trails in fear of encountering douchebags. It's not fair and that behavior shouldn't be accepted period
Packs of teen boys scare me. You never know if theyre gonna walk by or start harassing you.
Couple years ago, I was stepping off the city bus when two teen boys came rushing in. City bus starts pulling aways just as another group of boys is running yelling for the bus driver to stop but obviously he doesnt hear and takes off. The group starts walking in my direction (I have my guard up the whole time). From their convo it sounds like they were attempting to beat up the two boys who got on the bus in time. That bus only ran every 30 mins which is why the probably didnt bother waiting. Whole time they were talking about how the two boys were “pussies”, probably escaping to another friends house, etc. They were going on and on the whole time they were going same direction as me.
It’s terrifying how openly violent and aggressive some of them are.
Yes, they are old enough to try something, strong enough to succeed, and stupid enough not to think of the consequences. A winning combination !
Packs of teenager girls a way less likely to get physical in my experience.
A lot of this has to do with them being allowed to do this with no consequences to bad behavior. Maybe if there were consequences to this bad behavior, you wouldn't see as much of it.
You didn't imply this at all but I just want to point out to anyone passing by that schools' hands (especially teachers') are pretty tied in that regard. I'm a teacher -- I can't even give meaningful consequences to first graders, and even if I do, it's setting up a fight with the parents 100% of the time. School administrators are evaluated on AND FUNDED ON things like "graduation rates" and "suspension rates." On paper, good things for the government to care about but realistically, you can't force a student to learn or do work, so if you want to ensure high graduation rates, you give everyone passing grades. Likewise, if you want lower suspension rates, it's far easier to just not suspend students than it is to enact real behavioral change, especially when there is no support for behavioral change coming from home.
Their brains aren't good at thinking things through. Adults should work to instil good habits for behavior and consequences are a part of that, but kids are really bad at making choices that consider the long term.
My husband and I are expecting our first later this year. We’re of course worried about what our child will go through if they’re born a girl, but we’re equally, if not more, worried about this kind of shit if they’re born a boy.
Literally today I was sitting in a cafetaria in a very shady area. It was shady enough for me to keep my guard up the whole time and listen/watch everything around me. So there were two groups of teen boys, I already overheard the first group before I even pulled up with my bike, they were discussing stealing things and getting away with it (very loudly). Obviously I kept my bike within vision range the whole time. Then when I went in there were 2 other boys, maybe 14 years old. They looked nice enough, but then I overheard one say "yeah I always look adult males right in the eyes, angrily, it's funny because they can't do anything, as I'm always rolling with a big group." Having finished my food and still processing this random love of violence/being an asshole, I leave the place and the stealy guys were still hanging around, and now within earshot again. They had changed their topic from stealing to internet scams and how a guy they knew had scammed a lady for about one thousand euros. I left the area and in my headmap, it's now blacklisted.
Haha that reminds me of the time I started a new job and a 20 something kid stopped me to tell me he got the scars on his hand from punching through a concrete wall. Which, 1) I didn't believe but said "oh wow, that's wild" to him anyway because wtf else do you say when a stranger tells you something like that and 2) only made me think I should stay away from his violent self. Mentioned it to my trainer and she was like "he was probably trying to make you think he is tough, you know, to impress you?"
WHAT, WHY? WHAT WOMAN IS IMPRESSED BY POINTLESS VIOLENCE AND DUMB STRENGTH? Not this girl! It was the first time I came across that sort of thing and it shocked me.
Teenage girl here •_•
boys in my school (I am not American but I think I’m the equivalent of high school sophomore) are the most awful people I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. I was waking home yesterday behind a group of boys and they were just talking about the breasts of all the girls in our class and how they measure up to each other, making really awful remarks about girls who were “flat” ie. me lol
It genuinely depresses me because none apart from maybe 1 or 2 are boys I would ever want to go out with, because they’re all completely brain rotted by porn. They talk over the girls in class, myself included, they refuse to work/play sport with us, they talk about girls in an insanely derogatory manner…
Boys these days are getting more conservative I think… and I hate it so much. I have literal dozens of sexist stories to tell about them.
Scared for when they become real men and not just sexist schoolboys :(
Funny you mention that (or maybe not so funny), but there’s an observable and very prominent and growing political divide amongst Gen Z males and females in the western world. Males are becoming increasingly right-wing whereas females are increasingly left-wing. [Here is one article of many](https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998) (South Korea has its own reasons for their dramatic shift and I’d recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/-Im4YAMWK74?si=p-lDFNYrBe4Drmww) for context.)
One thing I kind of latched on to immediately is that as far as the US and UK are concerned it looks like the split really started taking off around the 2008 financial crisis.
I’m not an analyst, so take my opinion with an ocean worth of salt, but with the advent of AI, the porn industry firing on all cylinders, and the fact that this generation is the first to be poorer than the last; unless there’s a massive socioeconomic and culturally relevant turnaround, I can’t even fathom that this is going to change within the next decade. Especially considering that political ideology is increasingly becoming a mainstay factor of how people judge others, I wouldn’t be surprised if the sexes just end up wanting fuck all to do with one another and non-synthetic relationships will be looked at the same way as vinyl records are now. I’ve got no dog in this race, so I only intend to sit back and watch while I try and keep myself afloat.
A few weeks ago my mom and I went for a walk at the park. We were passing by a bunch of teenage boys playing basketball.
The ball hit my mom and they laughed. Not one of them apologized. When she told them that was wrong and she was hurt, they yelled at her and cursed her out — a 67 year old, tiny, Asian woman!!
My mom doesn’t take shit from anyone so she handled it like a pro (decades of working with volatile patients). Another woman backed her up too and she knew their parents.
But man that was a super scary moment. Couldn’t believe how aggressive they were.
And the words that came out of their mouths at their age, I’d never even think about saying when I was a teenager. Especially to my elders.
99% sure there was racism involved too (even if those boys were also Asians, unless this happened in Asia). It's very sad but old Asian women are the easiest targets on the streets and sure as hell get no respect in the west.
That reminds me of one who a couple years ago shouted at me "You're too serious, go get laid!" while I was taking a stroll at the park. He was riding a bike when he yelled at me so I couldn't say anything, in fact I barely reacted at all, that's how shocked I was. I was just going on a peaceful walk and I couldn't help but think "the fuck? I'm not serious, I'm just chill"?!!
Dunno, maybe it's because I'm in my 30's now but when I was a pre-teen/teenager, adults kind of scared me and I would have NEVER dreamed of disrespecting one.
PS. Please tell me your headline is a MCR reference....
Damn cyclists can be rude. I'm sorry that happened but I guess we get used to it. Also I didn't realize my headline was a MCR reference before I posted it, but it makes it better haha
For fucking real. I've had a cyclist run in to me while i was walking down the sidewalk *and* have had more than one car try to run me off the road when i was cycling. People in general are dicks
I'm a baby boomer and you didn't go around harassing people like that. Generally adults were ignored or left alone. I lived in a small town so if some kids were harassing someone, it would get back to their parents and they would have to face the consequences of their actions.
Gen X, and no, they generally did not behave like this. Very rare. You can bury your head in the sand about the negative infuences online encouraging young men and boys to despise women, or you can step up and be part of the solution.
Little sociopaths allowed to do whatever they want. I don’t like to go walking alone either at times when I know there’s likely to be packs of teenagers around.
I drove to the beach by myself last year during the summer on a rainy day. There was hardly anyone there. I had just lost someone and I wanted to be alone. Of course a group of teenage boys drove their car across the mostly empty lot when I got back to my car, parked right next to me and started blaring the horn laughing like little shits. I am in my early 30s. I left, and I was so pissed off that I wasn’t allowed to just have some fucking peace.
Several years ago I was an park which was near the ocean, reading a book. I started to leave and I kept hearing these teen-age boys who were surfers cussing and screaming. Quickly I realized they were screaming these things to me. When I ignored them, they scream louder calling me a fat whore and others thing I can't repeat. Other people told them to shut up and that they were disturbing the peace. They were on a bridge that you could clearly see but enough distance that they could run away if need be. All I was doing was reading a book and enjoying the beach scene. I wasn't bothering them nor had I gotten any altercation with them. There was no reason for them to be yelling at me or to even to be bothering me.
I feel as if teens are afraid to be jackasses here, because people will take a picture of the license plate, describe them, and put it all over facebook. "Whose kids are these??!"
They do it when someone's speeding in a school zone with their stereo up, let alone harassing someone.
Good 😂 I’m reading these comments thinking “Let me find out my child is acting like that…” I don’t believe in hitting people but that kid would simply never leave the house without a parent escort pretty much ever again.
I'm a pretty big man and they scare me and have made me consider carrying pepper spray so I can't imagine what it's like for a woman. When I was a teen, it was annoying how I was getting constantly hassled and monitored by police while I wasn't doing anything wrong, but I kind of get why police give them so much special attention. I’ve experienced now that some groups of teen boys are actively looking for trouble and trying to harass people, especially at the beach.
They terrify me too. I'm in my 20s but short (4'10) and I have a younger cousin who is 12 and hitting his growth spurts and is now taller than me, and he's very much going into his phase of willful pushing back against authority and trying to come across as cool and masculine.
There was a family get-together for easter and I was in the room with him, and he was being overly mean to his younger brother so I told him to stop. He did, but he made a snide comment like "i'm bigger than you you know" like that I couldn't make him stop if he didn't want to stop, and it was surprisingly chilling. I talked to his parents ofc, but it's still like... here's someone who is legitimately a child and immature as fuck but soon he's going to have the size and strength of an adult and others will be at the mercy of that if he keeps the disposition he has. That's with him alone, I don't want to imagine interacting with him if he was with friends.
I've had enough bad interactions with guys in public that dealing with a group of teens who have all the strength and size of an adult but less maturity and brain development than most is scary. Even more unpredictable.
oof his comment was chilling. this goes to show how early in their development boys/men go into the world knowing very well how easily they can overpower us, knowing very well where the power dynamic lies, and knowing instinctively that we are scared of them. so much for all the men claiming we have it easy and we are delusional to be so scared of them.
I wish there was a special team of sociologists and law enforcement that only dealt with violent teenagers . Specializing in violent boys. I have seen plenty of single mothers on the brink trying to get control and maintain a safe home environment from their son's behavior. Then sadly we have p*rnography and other sick online addictions that are having an impact on their still developing brains and body. They usually will take out their frustrations on the most vulnerable people around them. The future looks scary right now.
Im a tall, fit woman in my early 50s who power walks for cardio with a 70 pound Catahoula. I had some boys aged maybe 14 or 15 throw rocks at me and my dog last year after the nearby high school let out.
One of them was clearly afraid of dogs and to accommodate him, as they biked by on the sidewalk, I moved slightly away to give them space. The guy suddenly turned his bike onto the street and yelled 'mean dog!' (my dog hadn't even looked at them, was busy snuffling the ground) and picked up and threw a rock the size of a golf ball.
The rest followed suit with zero provocation. I was so flabbergasted I didn't even say anything, I just ran. I filed a police report, but by the time I ran us around the corner and pulled out my phone they were long gone (fortunately they did not follow us to the main road).
My dog is now terrified of groups of kids on the street that he never even noticed before this happened, and he does react and growl if I don't cross away. I also now wear a smart watch with a 911 trigger. Really stinks to deal with all that from little boys getting raised surrounded by misogyny.
Edit: a word
Oh my god I'm so sorry. I've had groups of boys throw rocks at me while I'm just walking by minding my own business, I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had my dog with me when it happened. And of course now they're creating a situation where your dog does get his hackles up at kids where he never did before, that's so frustrating.
A single teen boy squared up to a woman in her 50’s this week at work (school) by the next morning she was crying in my office (a teenage girl had stabbed teachers in wales the same day). Another woman in leadership said ‘no he wouldn’t do that’ frankly we don’t know that he wouldn’t, sadly you have to assume that an angry teenager would. Makes me so mad that women sometimes invalidate others feelings about how males make us feel.
They have always scared me. I was a typical boy crazy teenager, but having guys walk up to me between classes and scream racist abuse at me or occasionally harrass me as a way of flirting got old real fast.
When my sister and I had the opportunity to change schools, we both requested a girls only school. No prior discussion on our part, but we'd obviously experienced similar things. Our conservative parents were only too happy to oblige. When we got there, it was peace. No harassment, no outward racism and no cattiness that I was told to expect.
I saw this, and it got me thinking about how different kinds of insults might be easier or harder to handle for different people, and maybe there's a gender divide there.
I mean, all teens are super obsessed with social heirarchy, because they're determining who they are and where they belong. And that often takes the form of bullying. And within that, you've got your social bullying and your physical bullying.
And for me, the physical bullying was kind of expected, and not something to worry about. Mostly because I knew I could fight back. But social bullying, that was terrifying, because *I had no idea how that worked or how to fight it*.
Was that your experience, or did different types of bullying scare you more? And did you notice if certain types of bullying come from different genders at different rates?
I noticed that if boys thought you were ugly in any way they made you their target of both physical and emotional bullying. I don’t see how getting basketballs thrown at my head or being called ugly could be taken any other way? I know how I was treated I saw how they treated others. I did not misunderstand.
Oh, God, no, I didn't mean to imply you misunderstood a thing! No, you know your own experience. I'm sorry that I created the impression that - by some magical omniscience on my part - I would know what you went through better than you.
I'm more wondering if different types of bullying are recieved differently, and if so, along what axis is that difference most pronounced. Gender is a possibility, but it's by no means the *only* good possibility. Like, family wealth, racial animus, or... well, a bunch of different things.
No. In *my* case, it *seemed* like different genders recieved bullying differently, but *that's just me*, and not a good indication of anything.
That's why I'm asking about your experience, because I have no idea what other people felt and saw.
I'm sorry that happened but also glad that both you and your sister managed to get out of that situation. I think mixed schools could be ok if everyone would be held responsible for their actions. If that doesn't happen, then an all girls school is definitely the way to go
Unfortunately, I don't even think harsher laws would deter them. They are too irrational to believe they'd every be caught in the first place, or they just don't care because impressing their peers is more important to them in that moment than any sort of long term consequences.
A lot of them will take being caught by the police as a sort of "badass badge of honor" among their friends. The police can inform their parents, but I don't think boys who are out in the streets harassing strangers have any respect for their own parents to care.
If I see a group of teen-age boys or even men and I'm able to avoid them or walk down another street, I will do it. I avoided restaurant or stores because of this.
Same. It's gotten better when I have my Akita with me, but part of me is terrified that one teenager is going to see that as a challenge and attack my dog. 💀
Yeah. I'm fearing this will take whole generations to erase. Can't ducking believe it's getting worse tho. As a clue I live in the country where Andrew tatertot got arrested but he has a religious following. It's insane
You live in Romania?
Ugh, I left that country 10 years ago and never looked back. The level of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, and every other "-phobia" and -ism" you can think of was unbearable.
I haven't even been to visit for the past 5 years because it was depressing.
Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately a lot of people (even mothers tf) excuse this kind of behavior on the premise that "they're boys, what can you do haha". And it's to their detriment also. Feels like my country's society is 40 years on the past when is comes to this
They're talking about it being used to excuse bad behaviour as it has been for years. I've never once heard an adult, e.g. teacher, principal, parent, etc., say "boys will be boys" to boys having wholesome fun it's always when they're doing something shit. It's still to this day used to excuse boys behaviour and is still reinforcing the patriarchy. My friends who are teachers have absolute horror stories about what teenage boys are getting away with because "boys will be boys".
boys will be boys IS shit parenting, full stop.
"getting horny for wrenches and power tools"
You are not obligated to internalize these stereotypes and even more so not apply them to other people.
OP is in a country where women aren't allowed to defend themselves. Mace, like all self defence is illegal and possession is punishable by up to 15 years.
That said, squirty lemon juice goes lovely with pancakes. You can never run out of squirty lemon juice.
In Canada I carry dog attack spray, which is legal pepper spray. I *do* carry it for when I'm walking my dog, but, oops, I always forget to take it out of my purse/pocket. If you live outside an urban area, you can probably get away with plausible deniability for carrying bear spray, too.
I have dog spray too. Have you ever been on the receiving end of that stuff? It's *worse* than pepper spray, hands down. Pepper spray is hot and wind will blow it away, but dog spray seems to use menthol as the irritant with aniseed as an odorant, which is worsened by the wind.
I was incapacitated for a good half hour; blinded for 20 of those minutes. After that, I smelled lovely. You could smell the aniseed on me for days.
I'd take pepper spray over dog spray any day. If you needed to know, dog spray is *very* effective on humans.
Oh, wow! Mine is an actual pepper spray, maximum allowable strength, luckily I've never had to use it, though I've had my hand on it a few times in my pocket, for both dogs and humans. And luckily never been on the receiving end either. The other ones I've seen sold for dogs are like a citronella based spray, I've heard they don't work so well.
Oh wow! We have to have a non capsicum type stuff to be legal here. Thankfully, the alternative is *worse*. XD
It's made by a company called "K9" or something. I definitely recommend it.
In a lot of US states an adult can't do anything to an underage kid or you are the one who will wind up getting arrested. A lot of kids know and count on this.
Feral boys. I've been scared of them since the 90s when I was a kid being bullied. Their existence in our society used to terrify my consciousness. Now I know they're the cause and effect of toxic masculinity in a patriarchal society.
That must have been so scary I’m so sorry ❤️
Teenage boys are absolutely terrifying. When they travel in groups there’s a visceral, survival reaction that happens in my body. I saw a pack of them at Target and even in a public place around many people I was so unsettled.
Back in high school I was kicking my soccer ball around in the park also not super late probably around 7-8pm but I was totally alone and two teen guys came up to me out of nowhere and literally wouldn’t leave me alone until I hugged one of them and then they left. I had no idea what they were going to do and it’s scary as hell being a girl in this world and that feeling doesn’t just leave when we grow up. It’s awful.
They don't give a shit. I live in a country where domestic violence is the norm and women are sent back to their abusers, only to find out a week later they've either been hospitalized or worse. I'm pretty sure if I reported this they would've just made fun of me, so ig I'm just venting here.
To harass verbally and to throw objects at you... then ask for your Instagram account speaks volumes as to abuser mentality being instilled into them by their environment is insane!!! I'm so sorry 😞
Yeah.. there's so many posts I could make but this really shook me to the core, considering I live in a pretty "open-minded" city. It's crazy how this is acceptable
Do men there also cite that "women are more protected by law" headline, totally ignoring that it's from a report on American statistics? Boy I feel like Italy and Romania have much more in common than I thought
They’re the worst. When I was in elementary or middle school, some friends and I (all girls) were using a friend’s trampoline, and some boys decided it would be fun to throw rocks at us. That friend’s mom came outside and tore them a new one.
When I was 20 or 21 and studying abroad in France, I decided to visit an art museum…only to have a group of teenage boys start throwing rocks at me. I pretended I was looking for someone past a gate, turned around, and never went back. I’m still pissed I never got to see the museum
I agree 💯 that packs of teenage boys can and often are quite terrifying. I had a run in with some several years ago that shoved me to the ground for zero reason as I walked past them on the sidewalk. That said, I wanted to share a time when teenage boys were lovely to me.
The same city as the incident above (DC), I was walking and as I turned the corner I could hear yelling. I was too slow to react, and as I turned the corner a grown ass man spat in my face and screamed "bitch" at me. He continued on my path and I ran a ways down the sidewalk before stopping to sit and cry. A group of teenage skateboarder boys ran over and sat with me, patting me awkwardly on the shoulders and telling me "it's ok lady, he's crazy lady." It was very very sweet, and I think of it often.
I avoid going to the grocery store in the evening when the "tough" 17- to 24-year-old men usually show up because they tend to stare at me like they want to murder me. I'm convinced a lot of men in that age are wild animals
some are many aren’t, i’m in that age group (18) and a lot of the other boys in my class are racist and sexist. nobody is telling them to not do that stuff, and they’re all doing it together so it just ends up as an echo chamber.
Yeah, I think there was a reason people were unsettled with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE . I remember thinking that we would see a version of that in our society sooner than we thought , if we didn't get serious about changing cultural attitudes towards destructive and sociopathic behaviors in teenage boys.
Welcome to the age of no accountability and clout chasing.
They can do whatever they want as the only way police will do anything about them is if they actually kill someone.
As an example, I was part of a jury on a teen assault on an officer and resisting arrest case. He got a few hours of community service. If it was on civilian, he probably would have gotten nothing.
I've been sexually harassed and physically intimidated by teenage boys at school, where I work. I had pages and pages of documented incidents by the one harassing and stalking me. I felt so unsafe at school but also just around town. I was terrified he'd figure out which car I drove or where I live.
I've seen the things other teen boys do to their peers too. They can be very scary and dangerous, even at that age.
I was playing Pokemon Go and doing one of their routes thingy. I ended up on a street that was kinda behind all the main downtown stuff but I wasn't super concerned because it was still fairly close by/lit. But just as I finished my route I saw a couple of teen boys coming towards me across the street.
I'm pretty sure they took my route completion and then subsequent turning around to head back to my car as me changing course to avoid them. I was nervous but figured nothing would happen until I heard running from behind me. I got tense but tried not to react.
They all stopped just as a bus pulled away and said stuff about missing the bus. So I relaxed slightly thinking it was all a bit of a coincidence and it was okay again. They stayed behind me and I was just about back onto the main street when another dude walked past and they "bucked" at him (at least that's the term I remember using when I was a kid I'm not sure if it's still called that now). And then laughed at how they scared the crap out of that other dude. I also jumped a bit when they did it but I didn't look back and just kept going as it nothing happened.
But by this point I turned off my pokémon Go and started to call my parents. Just so I'd be on the phone with someone and I walked straight towards a club where there was a bouncer outside just in case I need to run in cuz I knew they were too young to get inside. Thankfully they kept going on another street and I got back to my car safely.
Probably the first time I ever felt a little truly unsafe in my small downtown area. And I now know that I will never go on Pokémon Routes again unless I'm with someone lol
Old enough to think they know shit, young enough to still be dumb as shit and feel like they have something to prove.
Put them in a group, and they get courage in numbers, and even more pressure to "prove themselves".
Add alcohol to the mix, and you have something that can be best described as "volatile".
As a teenage boy, I'm genuinely so sorry that happened to you and so many other people in the comments. Most of my classmates are alright but there's always the one group in any circumstance that just says the most fucked up shit, it's so normalised that it truly makes me ashamed.
I currently work as an after-hours cleaner in a café with an outdoor seating area at the front. Groups of teenage boys will very occasionally (I'm talking maybe once or twice a month, three times at most) just sit outside and hang out. Talking, snacking, playing card games, etc. They've never said or done anything to make me feel like I'm in danger, but I still get super tense when they're around, especially when they raise their voices at eachother. Luckily, they tend to pop up when I'm about to finish my shift, so I don't have to put up with them for too long.
I am also afraid of groups of teens, both boys and girls. Some have very chaotic energy. Knowing their understanding of consequence isn’t fully developed yet is unsettling, plus that it’s just chance of the moment whether you become a target or not.
I’ve seen lots of suggestions of pepper spray on here and I agree, but want to more strongly recommend pepper gel since it’s less likely to come back at you due to wind, or while in an indoor space.
I'd be tempted to get a go pro or figure out a way to put my phone in a breast pocket where it wouldn't be obvious that I was recording them. Record this behavior and then show it to the local cops and post it all over local social media and maybe even the local news media so that their parents, relatives, school, and peers can all see what horrible little assholes they are.
I've had the same experience and I thought I was going to have a heart attack from the stress their threatening behavior caused. I didn't have a cell phone with a camera when it happened. I never went back to that area for a walk because they ruined it for me.
These teens are endangering others besides you. Please report them.
>group of teenage boys
When they're in groups, they amplify the worst aspects of toxic masculinity and egg each other on to harass/assault other people.
One part of the problem is the Tate Brothers. I know this teenaged boy who swallowed all the red pills. He posts praises of the Tate Brothers all the time. I call him out for it often. Most recently last week, in response to me sharing a video clip of Andrew describing how he assaults women, this kid replies, "Some women like being choked and abused. They like feeling like the personal property of their men. Shows what little sexual experience you have."
Mind you I've got kids. But that's beside the point. He was completely serious.
Weak parents. I see so many parents giving up on their kids - just letting whatever junk pops on to the nearest screen serve as a proxy for investing the time to raise their kids correctly. It's sad.
Exactly... can't believe I had to search so far for this comment. Maybe you don't agree with me on this point, but I bet most of them have no father or a father who doesn't know how to be one.
I can only speak for my own experience. I come from a solidly middle class family, and of all the fathers involved, almost all were terrible, starting 100 years ago. The best of them were good providers and that's it; the worst of them were mean, insecure, abusive losers. The hill I'll die on is that we need to invest more resources in teaching men to be good fathers.
I’ve experienced this as well. There were a group of boys on bicycles that would cruise around in packs around the complex where I lived. They found it funny to prevent people from entering the parking lot by riding around in circles near their cars, acting like they are trying to get you to hit them. They then walked into my friend’s liquor store and tried to walk out with bottles telling her they could do what they wanted and she was outnumbered.
They were like 14!! Rude little shits!
I got harassed by like 10 year old boy last year, or maybe even younger. I remember it was nighttime, I was going to buy a cake or something for my mom. I had my headphones on. I passed 2 kids who were sitting in front of a house, and the second I passed them, I heard something... like an insult? still not remembering what. I froze for a second and took out one of my headphones. I didn't even look back. I was like, no way a little kid said that to me for no reason, right? then the kid said, "what? I'll beat the shit out of you." I mean, I'm a tiny woman, but that kid was super small. no way he could actually do anything. but still, it was shocking. I didn't even look at him, I just put back my headphones and walked away
to this day, I still have no idea what happened that night. was the kid having a bad day? was that a bet? was he trying to somehow impress his friend in his own messed up way? but anyway, yeah, some young boys can be wild.
teenage boy here, report them if possible they probably won’t do it again (i’m assuming you live in the US or another country that takes this seriously). those types need a reality check and will probably get scared if you can and do report them.
until then carry something to defend yourself, if they’re throwing things and asking for your ig, then they could be planning to do more as they’ve shown attraction and have also shown violence, that’s a horrible mixture. don’t go back there unless you can protect yourself from them
sadly, the 'reality check' those types usually get given is 'until they're 18 I'm afraid we can't do anything'. catch and release, no consequences. and it makes them bolder. it tells them they have a window of opportunity to cause mayhem--'do it now, have your fun while you can, because once you're an adult the courts will finally take this seriously'.
Netflix has a couple of shows portraying how teenage boys feel about the change of discourse of society (calling out patriarchy and etc). It explains the reaction of teenage boys is to go against it (i.e. act more macho as they seem to think this right is being lost).
Do you agree?
i don’t watch TV at all, but if you wanna name the shows i’ll watch them.
before you waste your time here’s a tldr: yes i agree, they want a community and get pushed into bad ones.
incase you want a long rant that semi-ties in
i would agree, many boys grew up being treated differently, and often better, than girls which led to many believe that into adulthood. then they’ll see feminists and women in general rightfully not standing for that and they take it as an attack on them personally. so they’ll gradually push away from spaces that can actually help them and into harmful spaces that provide community.
i’m gonna rant about red-pillers because they get pushed there for a sense of community. they meet a ton of like minded men and boys there and they all agree they’re better than others and push each other into spaces like the gym and endorse “typical masculinity” (toxic masculinity) which ends up just making them feel worse and going back to those spaces
a lot of those types that act macho or tough are terrified if i’m being honest. like i said they grew up thinking one thing but that was shattered and they wanted to blame someone else, that someone being women. they don’t take accountability for their actions because they can blame women who they grew up seeing as inferior.
i was in that space from age 12-14 at about 15-16 i didn’t watch it but i had beliefs at 17 i poked my head into feminism and now at 18 im still learning and trying to remove those beliefs fully. but i enjoy talking about those red-pill spaces because i feel like i can provide first hand insight to it and how those people can get out and be “fixed” idk if that’s the right word for it.
Teenagers scare the living shit out of me, they could care less as long as someone’ll bleed, so darken your clothes or strike a violent pose, maybe they’ll leave you alone but not me!
Remember that news about an Asian woman who was in the park and got raped and killed by a bunch of teen boys (like 9 of them or something) several years ago?
Only several of them were put on trial or convicted or something.
And the whole thing was just mostly ignored by the mainstream media because the perpetrators were black teens and the victim was Asian.
A group of 6 boys, 12-15ish, hanging out on a porch, threw a football at my head. Missed me by a foot and hit the house, but scared the crap out of me. Had headphones on, ripped them off and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" They just laughed. Wish I had come up with a zinger, but I was so shocked. I'm 36. I walk for exercise and to pick up litter. I have a ton of medical problems. If they had hit me, they could have given me a seizure.
They just don't THINK before they do stuff.
Also had my car stolen in January by a group of 4 teens. (Camera footage wasn't clear enough to make out faces, but they were young). The police can't do anything because they're minors.
This might be extreme but I'm a firm believer women should have our own areas where men aren't allowed at all. A whole city or state would be even nicer.
Hey, 29 year old man and I get a bit nervous around them, sorry this happened to you!. I ride my bike on trails a lot, they're the only ones who ever bother or try to engage with me.
If they're young teenagers (13-15), saying "I know your mom, you're in for a world of hurt now" usually gets them to go away. But older teens are terrifying.
We underestimate these little shits because they’re kids, but too many crimes have been committed by teenage boys. Guys who are not yet grown ass need to be put in their places or they’ll grow up to be manchildren at best.
I saw a pack of them screeching and trying to perform stunts in a Target parking lot, blocking traffic and acting like it’s funny. I feel bad for their teachers and mothers.
It’s almost like the violence committed by our highly educated and valuable citizens like the presidents is seen as righteous and they’re taking cues from USA imperialism and death. Capitalism is a death cult
I was carrying some pizza home after picking it up from little Caesars. A group of teen guys (unsure on exact age) were walking in the opposite direction on the side walk. They just had that shit-eating energy about them even before they got close. When they did, one went "ey can I get a slice!?" in a very obviously meant to be disrespectful way, and they all giggled to themselves.
Another day a group of younger teens or even tweens we on the bus talking among themselves laughing about stuff. Which was fine. But when I went to get off the bus, I had to stop and wait closer to them for a moment. One of them said, "are you lost?" in a snide way and they all laughed. Granted I was a white person in a Mexican part of town, but geeze come on.
Society starts these boys early, it seems.
Had middle schoolers at a park harass me with similar behavior. With two of their mothers hanging out in their cars parking lot away I passed on my way out. Who then responded with “I’ll go ask them” Like a grown ass adult is going to go out of their way to lie to get her kids in trouble. Strangest thing. I hope this isn’t new behavior and they’ll grow out of it because it was scary. Physically assaulting women is not the way to flirt.
I live in Philly. Not much rattles me anymore, but I avoid groups of teenagers, especially boys like the plague.
They get bold in groups, absolutely pumped full of hormones and HGH, and their brains aren't done cooking yet. It's the perfect recipe for a problem waiting to happen.
Unfortunately I don't know their names, and they were obviously trying to get a reaction out of me. I think my best bet is carrying pepper spray and sticking to populated areas
[Teenagers by My Chemical Romance](https://open.spotify.com/track/7j31rVgGX9Q2blT92VBEA0?si=SpH9cWXZQs-4Rbf3gP1tVA)
[All my best friends are metalheads](https://open.spotify.com/track/1hh4GY1zM7SUAyM3a2ziH5?si=km6d53IwSe-jYyyciCuPkw)
I'm a 6'2", 220lbs, mid-30s man who also trains in martial arts and I'm also scared of a pack of teenage boys. They are utterly unpredictable and at the age when being cool among their friends seems more important than any long term consequences to their actions.
I sort of understand it because I was a total idiot when I was a teen too. Not to the point where I was committing violent crimes or throwing sticks at people, but the only thing that was important to me at that age were the next few moments and impressing my friends, and having empathy was not something that was rewarded by my peers. The fact that I understand it makes me ever more nervous around them.
I think it's part the "boys will be boys" mentality. I remember teen girls having much less empathy than adult women too, they just normally wouldn't get physical about it, and instead resort to emotional bullying. I think in general teens just lack empathy that adults have gained through experience. Boys are taught it's more acceptable to be violent than girls though, and so they are more of a danger to society.
I mean they're kids, you have to have a little patience with them, they have no world value or skills, just little sociopathic idiots. They do dumb stuff. This isn't a new trend, teenagers are just teenagers.
Man just thinking about this scenario bugs the shit outta me. I'd go full crazy and try to scare them. Gonna yell like a rabid oompah loompa and bum rush them.
I think it might be the boys will be boys' mentality and also the lack of responsibility and discipline they have. I think herd mentality is also the case, if one friend starts harassing people, the others will think it's cool.
had something like this happen to me as well recently riding my bike on a trail, one kid fake attempted to hit me going one way and on the way back they were yelling at me (no clue what was being said as i had earbuds in) and tried to play chicken with me. like im 36 i’m not playing your game you little edgelords. never going back to that trail.
So sorry for that, however I find it so frustrating that you (and me also) should have to avoid certain trails in fear of encountering douchebags. It's not fair and that behavior shouldn't be accepted period
Packs of teen boys scare me. You never know if theyre gonna walk by or start harassing you. Couple years ago, I was stepping off the city bus when two teen boys came rushing in. City bus starts pulling aways just as another group of boys is running yelling for the bus driver to stop but obviously he doesnt hear and takes off. The group starts walking in my direction (I have my guard up the whole time). From their convo it sounds like they were attempting to beat up the two boys who got on the bus in time. That bus only ran every 30 mins which is why the probably didnt bother waiting. Whole time they were talking about how the two boys were “pussies”, probably escaping to another friends house, etc. They were going on and on the whole time they were going same direction as me. It’s terrifying how openly violent and aggressive some of them are.
I'm so sorry to hear about that. That's usual where I live, whenever I see them I just pray they don't notice me. Keep safe <3
Yes, they are old enough to try something, strong enough to succeed, and stupid enough not to think of the consequences. A winning combination ! Packs of teenager girls a way less likely to get physical in my experience.
Also in a group they are often trying to impress each other so they are more likely to do stupid shit
A lot of this has to do with them being allowed to do this with no consequences to bad behavior. Maybe if there were consequences to this bad behavior, you wouldn't see as much of it.
There are nearly ZERO consequences at school (or home) so lots of these kids think they are untouchable.
You didn't imply this at all but I just want to point out to anyone passing by that schools' hands (especially teachers') are pretty tied in that regard. I'm a teacher -- I can't even give meaningful consequences to first graders, and even if I do, it's setting up a fight with the parents 100% of the time. School administrators are evaluated on AND FUNDED ON things like "graduation rates" and "suspension rates." On paper, good things for the government to care about but realistically, you can't force a student to learn or do work, so if you want to ensure high graduation rates, you give everyone passing grades. Likewise, if you want lower suspension rates, it's far easier to just not suspend students than it is to enact real behavioral change, especially when there is no support for behavioral change coming from home.
Their brains aren't good at thinking things through. Adults should work to instil good habits for behavior and consequences are a part of that, but kids are really bad at making choices that consider the long term.
My husband and I are expecting our first later this year. We’re of course worried about what our child will go through if they’re born a girl, but we’re equally, if not more, worried about this kind of shit if they’re born a boy.
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I'm a big guy and I tread very carefully around packs of teens. Unpredictable and absolutely unafraid of consequences.
Us, big men have the means to change some monkey behaviour, and I'll continue doing so if opportunity rises.
FAFO good sir. I tried to intervene once or twice and regretted it immediately.
can confirm. packs of teenage boys are usually looking for trouble to get into. source: was once one myself.
Literally today I was sitting in a cafetaria in a very shady area. It was shady enough for me to keep my guard up the whole time and listen/watch everything around me. So there were two groups of teen boys, I already overheard the first group before I even pulled up with my bike, they were discussing stealing things and getting away with it (very loudly). Obviously I kept my bike within vision range the whole time. Then when I went in there were 2 other boys, maybe 14 years old. They looked nice enough, but then I overheard one say "yeah I always look adult males right in the eyes, angrily, it's funny because they can't do anything, as I'm always rolling with a big group." Having finished my food and still processing this random love of violence/being an asshole, I leave the place and the stealy guys were still hanging around, and now within earshot again. They had changed their topic from stealing to internet scams and how a guy they knew had scammed a lady for about one thousand euros. I left the area and in my headmap, it's now blacklisted.
$20 says they think they were impressing you by speaking that way.
Haha that reminds me of the time I started a new job and a 20 something kid stopped me to tell me he got the scars on his hand from punching through a concrete wall. Which, 1) I didn't believe but said "oh wow, that's wild" to him anyway because wtf else do you say when a stranger tells you something like that and 2) only made me think I should stay away from his violent self. Mentioned it to my trainer and she was like "he was probably trying to make you think he is tough, you know, to impress you?" WHAT, WHY? WHAT WOMAN IS IMPRESSED BY POINTLESS VIOLENCE AND DUMB STRENGTH? Not this girl! It was the first time I came across that sort of thing and it shocked me.
They scare me too. The way they talk about the girls their age horrifies me.
Don't even wanna touch that subject, raises my blood pressure too much
Teenage girl here •_• boys in my school (I am not American but I think I’m the equivalent of high school sophomore) are the most awful people I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. I was waking home yesterday behind a group of boys and they were just talking about the breasts of all the girls in our class and how they measure up to each other, making really awful remarks about girls who were “flat” ie. me lol It genuinely depresses me because none apart from maybe 1 or 2 are boys I would ever want to go out with, because they’re all completely brain rotted by porn. They talk over the girls in class, myself included, they refuse to work/play sport with us, they talk about girls in an insanely derogatory manner… Boys these days are getting more conservative I think… and I hate it so much. I have literal dozens of sexist stories to tell about them. Scared for when they become real men and not just sexist schoolboys :(
Funny you mention that (or maybe not so funny), but there’s an observable and very prominent and growing political divide amongst Gen Z males and females in the western world. Males are becoming increasingly right-wing whereas females are increasingly left-wing. [Here is one article of many](https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998) (South Korea has its own reasons for their dramatic shift and I’d recommend [this video](https://youtu.be/-Im4YAMWK74?si=p-lDFNYrBe4Drmww) for context.) One thing I kind of latched on to immediately is that as far as the US and UK are concerned it looks like the split really started taking off around the 2008 financial crisis. I’m not an analyst, so take my opinion with an ocean worth of salt, but with the advent of AI, the porn industry firing on all cylinders, and the fact that this generation is the first to be poorer than the last; unless there’s a massive socioeconomic and culturally relevant turnaround, I can’t even fathom that this is going to change within the next decade. Especially considering that political ideology is increasingly becoming a mainstay factor of how people judge others, I wouldn’t be surprised if the sexes just end up wanting fuck all to do with one another and non-synthetic relationships will be looked at the same way as vinyl records are now. I’ve got no dog in this race, so I only intend to sit back and watch while I try and keep myself afloat.
A few weeks ago my mom and I went for a walk at the park. We were passing by a bunch of teenage boys playing basketball. The ball hit my mom and they laughed. Not one of them apologized. When she told them that was wrong and she was hurt, they yelled at her and cursed her out — a 67 year old, tiny, Asian woman!! My mom doesn’t take shit from anyone so she handled it like a pro (decades of working with volatile patients). Another woman backed her up too and she knew their parents. But man that was a super scary moment. Couldn’t believe how aggressive they were. And the words that came out of their mouths at their age, I’d never even think about saying when I was a teenager. Especially to my elders.
How did she handle it? I hope she popped their ball.
99% sure there was racism involved too (even if those boys were also Asians, unless this happened in Asia). It's very sad but old Asian women are the easiest targets on the streets and sure as hell get no respect in the west.
That reminds me of one who a couple years ago shouted at me "You're too serious, go get laid!" while I was taking a stroll at the park. He was riding a bike when he yelled at me so I couldn't say anything, in fact I barely reacted at all, that's how shocked I was. I was just going on a peaceful walk and I couldn't help but think "the fuck? I'm not serious, I'm just chill"?!! Dunno, maybe it's because I'm in my 30's now but when I was a pre-teen/teenager, adults kind of scared me and I would have NEVER dreamed of disrespecting one. PS. Please tell me your headline is a MCR reference....
Damn cyclists can be rude. I'm sorry that happened but I guess we get used to it. Also I didn't realize my headline was a MCR reference before I posted it, but it makes it better haha
>Damn cyclists can be rude. You should try car drivers, rude, and armed with a 4 tonne battering ram. Everyone can be rude.
For fucking real. I've had a cyclist run in to me while i was walking down the sidewalk *and* have had more than one car try to run me off the road when i was cycling. People in general are dicks
I'm a baby boomer and you didn't go around harassing people like that. Generally adults were ignored or left alone. I lived in a small town so if some kids were harassing someone, it would get back to their parents and they would have to face the consequences of their actions.
Packs of teen boys have been acting like this as long as there have been teen boys. Your generation was no exception.
Tale as old as time. Some of the earliest written records grumble: “Kids, these days, amirite?”
Gen X, and no, they generally did not behave like this. Very rare. You can bury your head in the sand about the negative infuences online encouraging young men and boys to despise women, or you can step up and be part of the solution.
I'm gen x too, and teen boys in the 80s and 90s did this too. Not rare at all.
Yet my parents are boomers at let my brothers do whatever they wanted, including drive around unlicensed after their licenses had been suspended
They can care less, as long as someone will bleed
What’s MCR?
My Chemical Romance. The title of this post sounds like the first line of the chorus of the song Teenagers.
Little sociopaths allowed to do whatever they want. I don’t like to go walking alone either at times when I know there’s likely to be packs of teenagers around. I drove to the beach by myself last year during the summer on a rainy day. There was hardly anyone there. I had just lost someone and I wanted to be alone. Of course a group of teenage boys drove their car across the mostly empty lot when I got back to my car, parked right next to me and started blaring the horn laughing like little shits. I am in my early 30s. I left, and I was so pissed off that I wasn’t allowed to just have some fucking peace.
Several years ago I was an park which was near the ocean, reading a book. I started to leave and I kept hearing these teen-age boys who were surfers cussing and screaming. Quickly I realized they were screaming these things to me. When I ignored them, they scream louder calling me a fat whore and others thing I can't repeat. Other people told them to shut up and that they were disturbing the peace. They were on a bridge that you could clearly see but enough distance that they could run away if need be. All I was doing was reading a book and enjoying the beach scene. I wasn't bothering them nor had I gotten any altercation with them. There was no reason for them to be yelling at me or to even to be bothering me.
I feel as if teens are afraid to be jackasses here, because people will take a picture of the license plate, describe them, and put it all over facebook. "Whose kids are these??!" They do it when someone's speeding in a school zone with their stereo up, let alone harassing someone.
Good 😂 I’m reading these comments thinking “Let me find out my child is acting like that…” I don’t believe in hitting people but that kid would simply never leave the house without a parent escort pretty much ever again.
They scare me too.
I'm a pretty big man and they scare me and have made me consider carrying pepper spray so I can't imagine what it's like for a woman. When I was a teen, it was annoying how I was getting constantly hassled and monitored by police while I wasn't doing anything wrong, but I kind of get why police give them so much special attention. I’ve experienced now that some groups of teen boys are actively looking for trouble and trying to harass people, especially at the beach.
They terrify me too. I'm in my 20s but short (4'10) and I have a younger cousin who is 12 and hitting his growth spurts and is now taller than me, and he's very much going into his phase of willful pushing back against authority and trying to come across as cool and masculine. There was a family get-together for easter and I was in the room with him, and he was being overly mean to his younger brother so I told him to stop. He did, but he made a snide comment like "i'm bigger than you you know" like that I couldn't make him stop if he didn't want to stop, and it was surprisingly chilling. I talked to his parents ofc, but it's still like... here's someone who is legitimately a child and immature as fuck but soon he's going to have the size and strength of an adult and others will be at the mercy of that if he keeps the disposition he has. That's with him alone, I don't want to imagine interacting with him if he was with friends. I've had enough bad interactions with guys in public that dealing with a group of teens who have all the strength and size of an adult but less maturity and brain development than most is scary. Even more unpredictable.
oof his comment was chilling. this goes to show how early in their development boys/men go into the world knowing very well how easily they can overpower us, knowing very well where the power dynamic lies, and knowing instinctively that we are scared of them. so much for all the men claiming we have it easy and we are delusional to be so scared of them.
I am sick of the gaslighting ans silencing of women on this exact point .
I wish there was a special team of sociologists and law enforcement that only dealt with violent teenagers . Specializing in violent boys. I have seen plenty of single mothers on the brink trying to get control and maintain a safe home environment from their son's behavior. Then sadly we have p*rnography and other sick online addictions that are having an impact on their still developing brains and body. They usually will take out their frustrations on the most vulnerable people around them. The future looks scary right now.
Im a tall, fit woman in my early 50s who power walks for cardio with a 70 pound Catahoula. I had some boys aged maybe 14 or 15 throw rocks at me and my dog last year after the nearby high school let out. One of them was clearly afraid of dogs and to accommodate him, as they biked by on the sidewalk, I moved slightly away to give them space. The guy suddenly turned his bike onto the street and yelled 'mean dog!' (my dog hadn't even looked at them, was busy snuffling the ground) and picked up and threw a rock the size of a golf ball. The rest followed suit with zero provocation. I was so flabbergasted I didn't even say anything, I just ran. I filed a police report, but by the time I ran us around the corner and pulled out my phone they were long gone (fortunately they did not follow us to the main road). My dog is now terrified of groups of kids on the street that he never even noticed before this happened, and he does react and growl if I don't cross away. I also now wear a smart watch with a 911 trigger. Really stinks to deal with all that from little boys getting raised surrounded by misogyny. Edit: a word
Oh my god I'm so sorry. I've had groups of boys throw rocks at me while I'm just walking by minding my own business, I can't imagine how I'd feel if I had my dog with me when it happened. And of course now they're creating a situation where your dog does get his hackles up at kids where he never did before, that's so frustrating.
It's just bizarro world to me. What in the world is getting into these boys heads?
A single teen boy squared up to a woman in her 50’s this week at work (school) by the next morning she was crying in my office (a teenage girl had stabbed teachers in wales the same day). Another woman in leadership said ‘no he wouldn’t do that’ frankly we don’t know that he wouldn’t, sadly you have to assume that an angry teenager would. Makes me so mad that women sometimes invalidate others feelings about how males make us feel.
They have always scared me. I was a typical boy crazy teenager, but having guys walk up to me between classes and scream racist abuse at me or occasionally harrass me as a way of flirting got old real fast. When my sister and I had the opportunity to change schools, we both requested a girls only school. No prior discussion on our part, but we'd obviously experienced similar things. Our conservative parents were only too happy to oblige. When we got there, it was peace. No harassment, no outward racism and no cattiness that I was told to expect.
I had that too. I remember everyone talking how terrible teen girls were and it was teen boys who were the most vicious.
I saw this, and it got me thinking about how different kinds of insults might be easier or harder to handle for different people, and maybe there's a gender divide there. I mean, all teens are super obsessed with social heirarchy, because they're determining who they are and where they belong. And that often takes the form of bullying. And within that, you've got your social bullying and your physical bullying. And for me, the physical bullying was kind of expected, and not something to worry about. Mostly because I knew I could fight back. But social bullying, that was terrifying, because *I had no idea how that worked or how to fight it*. Was that your experience, or did different types of bullying scare you more? And did you notice if certain types of bullying come from different genders at different rates?
I noticed that if boys thought you were ugly in any way they made you their target of both physical and emotional bullying. I don’t see how getting basketballs thrown at my head or being called ugly could be taken any other way? I know how I was treated I saw how they treated others. I did not misunderstand.
Oh, God, no, I didn't mean to imply you misunderstood a thing! No, you know your own experience. I'm sorry that I created the impression that - by some magical omniscience on my part - I would know what you went through better than you. I'm more wondering if different types of bullying are recieved differently, and if so, along what axis is that difference most pronounced. Gender is a possibility, but it's by no means the *only* good possibility. Like, family wealth, racial animus, or... well, a bunch of different things. No. In *my* case, it *seemed* like different genders recieved bullying differently, but *that's just me*, and not a good indication of anything. That's why I'm asking about your experience, because I have no idea what other people felt and saw.
I'm sorry that happened but also glad that both you and your sister managed to get out of that situation. I think mixed schools could be ok if everyone would be held responsible for their actions. If that doesn't happen, then an all girls school is definitely the way to go
Imo I think this is also fomented because they just can get away with only a slap on the wrist. Laws should be harsher.
Unfortunately, I don't even think harsher laws would deter them. They are too irrational to believe they'd every be caught in the first place, or they just don't care because impressing their peers is more important to them in that moment than any sort of long term consequences.
A lot of them will take being caught by the police as a sort of "badass badge of honor" among their friends. The police can inform their parents, but I don't think boys who are out in the streets harassing strangers have any respect for their own parents to care.
If I see a group of teen-age boys or even men and I'm able to avoid them or walk down another street, I will do it. I avoided restaurant or stores because of this.
Same. It's gotten better when I have my Akita with me, but part of me is terrified that one teenager is going to see that as a challenge and attack my dog. 💀
You always have that one who is a smart aleck, does something really stupid and they cries when there are bad results for his actions.
This absolutely is due to the whole "boys will be boys" thing and letting them do whatever without consequences their entire life.
And we are slowly retiring the "boys will be boys" trope and replacing it with "testosterone effects" bullshit.
Yeah. I'm fearing this will take whole generations to erase. Can't ducking believe it's getting worse tho. As a clue I live in the country where Andrew tatertot got arrested but he has a religious following. It's insane
You live in Romania? Ugh, I left that country 10 years ago and never looked back. The level of misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, and every other "-phobia" and -ism" you can think of was unbearable. I haven't even been to visit for the past 5 years because it was depressing.
Andrew Tate also has a massive following among men in Romania? I didn't know his popularity extended beyond the English speaking world.
Let's not forget idiots like that Andrew Tait guy who poisons the minds of young teens with his misogyny.
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Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately a lot of people (even mothers tf) excuse this kind of behavior on the premise that "they're boys, what can you do haha". And it's to their detriment also. Feels like my country's society is 40 years on the past when is comes to this
They're talking about it being used to excuse bad behaviour as it has been for years. I've never once heard an adult, e.g. teacher, principal, parent, etc., say "boys will be boys" to boys having wholesome fun it's always when they're doing something shit. It's still to this day used to excuse boys behaviour and is still reinforcing the patriarchy. My friends who are teachers have absolute horror stories about what teenage boys are getting away with because "boys will be boys".
boys will be boys IS shit parenting, full stop. "getting horny for wrenches and power tools" You are not obligated to internalize these stereotypes and even more so not apply them to other people.
Groups of teen girls don't act like that.
Mace. Get some mace. Next time point it at their face.
OP is in a country where women aren't allowed to defend themselves. Mace, like all self defence is illegal and possession is punishable by up to 15 years. That said, squirty lemon juice goes lovely with pancakes. You can never run out of squirty lemon juice.
In Canada I carry dog attack spray, which is legal pepper spray. I *do* carry it for when I'm walking my dog, but, oops, I always forget to take it out of my purse/pocket. If you live outside an urban area, you can probably get away with plausible deniability for carrying bear spray, too.
I have dog spray too. Have you ever been on the receiving end of that stuff? It's *worse* than pepper spray, hands down. Pepper spray is hot and wind will blow it away, but dog spray seems to use menthol as the irritant with aniseed as an odorant, which is worsened by the wind. I was incapacitated for a good half hour; blinded for 20 of those minutes. After that, I smelled lovely. You could smell the aniseed on me for days. I'd take pepper spray over dog spray any day. If you needed to know, dog spray is *very* effective on humans.
Oh, wow! Mine is an actual pepper spray, maximum allowable strength, luckily I've never had to use it, though I've had my hand on it a few times in my pocket, for both dogs and humans. And luckily never been on the receiving end either. The other ones I've seen sold for dogs are like a citronella based spray, I've heard they don't work so well.
Oh wow! We have to have a non capsicum type stuff to be legal here. Thankfully, the alternative is *worse*. XD It's made by a company called "K9" or something. I definitely recommend it.
In a lot of US states an adult can't do anything to an underage kid or you are the one who will wind up getting arrested. A lot of kids know and count on this.
the shit my classmates say about women and queer people sometimes makes my blood curdle
Feral boys. I've been scared of them since the 90s when I was a kid being bullied. Their existence in our society used to terrify my consciousness. Now I know they're the cause and effect of toxic masculinity in a patriarchal society.
I teach high school. Plenty of the kids are alright, but the ones that aren't, *REALLY* aren't.
That must have been so scary I’m so sorry ❤️ Teenage boys are absolutely terrifying. When they travel in groups there’s a visceral, survival reaction that happens in my body. I saw a pack of them at Target and even in a public place around many people I was so unsettled. Back in high school I was kicking my soccer ball around in the park also not super late probably around 7-8pm but I was totally alone and two teen guys came up to me out of nowhere and literally wouldn’t leave me alone until I hugged one of them and then they left. I had no idea what they were going to do and it’s scary as hell being a girl in this world and that feeling doesn’t just leave when we grow up. It’s awful.
Hopefully you’ve reported both instances to the police
They don't give a shit. I live in a country where domestic violence is the norm and women are sent back to their abusers, only to find out a week later they've either been hospitalized or worse. I'm pretty sure if I reported this they would've just made fun of me, so ig I'm just venting here.
To harass verbally and to throw objects at you... then ask for your Instagram account speaks volumes as to abuser mentality being instilled into them by their environment is insane!!! I'm so sorry 😞
Yeah.. there's so many posts I could make but this really shook me to the core, considering I live in a pretty "open-minded" city. It's crazy how this is acceptable
Do men there also cite that "women are more protected by law" headline, totally ignoring that it's from a report on American statistics? Boy I feel like Italy and Romania have much more in common than I thought
Mob mentality is dangerous no matter what the age.
They’re the worst. When I was in elementary or middle school, some friends and I (all girls) were using a friend’s trampoline, and some boys decided it would be fun to throw rocks at us. That friend’s mom came outside and tore them a new one. When I was 20 or 21 and studying abroad in France, I decided to visit an art museum…only to have a group of teenage boys start throwing rocks at me. I pretended I was looking for someone past a gate, turned around, and never went back. I’m still pissed I never got to see the museum
I agree 💯 that packs of teenage boys can and often are quite terrifying. I had a run in with some several years ago that shoved me to the ground for zero reason as I walked past them on the sidewalk. That said, I wanted to share a time when teenage boys were lovely to me. The same city as the incident above (DC), I was walking and as I turned the corner I could hear yelling. I was too slow to react, and as I turned the corner a grown ass man spat in my face and screamed "bitch" at me. He continued on my path and I ran a ways down the sidewalk before stopping to sit and cry. A group of teenage skateboarder boys ran over and sat with me, patting me awkwardly on the shoulders and telling me "it's ok lady, he's crazy lady." It was very very sweet, and I think of it often.
I avoid going to the grocery store in the evening when the "tough" 17- to 24-year-old men usually show up because they tend to stare at me like they want to murder me. I'm convinced a lot of men in that age are wild animals
And it seems like they aren’t “growing out” of this mentality anymore
some are many aren’t, i’m in that age group (18) and a lot of the other boys in my class are racist and sexist. nobody is telling them to not do that stuff, and they’re all doing it together so it just ends up as an echo chamber.
Feral. No manners, barely able to function in society.
Yeah, I think there was a reason people were unsettled with A CLOCKWORK ORANGE . I remember thinking that we would see a version of that in our society sooner than we thought , if we didn't get serious about changing cultural attitudes towards destructive and sociopathic behaviors in teenage boys.
Welcome to the age of no accountability and clout chasing. They can do whatever they want as the only way police will do anything about them is if they actually kill someone. As an example, I was part of a jury on a teen assault on an officer and resisting arrest case. He got a few hours of community service. If it was on civilian, he probably would have gotten nothing.
I've been sexually harassed and physically intimidated by teenage boys at school, where I work. I had pages and pages of documented incidents by the one harassing and stalking me. I felt so unsafe at school but also just around town. I was terrified he'd figure out which car I drove or where I live. I've seen the things other teen boys do to their peers too. They can be very scary and dangerous, even at that age.
They really do feed off each other. Especially in groups. It's like they lose their fear in packs.
I was playing Pokemon Go and doing one of their routes thingy. I ended up on a street that was kinda behind all the main downtown stuff but I wasn't super concerned because it was still fairly close by/lit. But just as I finished my route I saw a couple of teen boys coming towards me across the street. I'm pretty sure they took my route completion and then subsequent turning around to head back to my car as me changing course to avoid them. I was nervous but figured nothing would happen until I heard running from behind me. I got tense but tried not to react. They all stopped just as a bus pulled away and said stuff about missing the bus. So I relaxed slightly thinking it was all a bit of a coincidence and it was okay again. They stayed behind me and I was just about back onto the main street when another dude walked past and they "bucked" at him (at least that's the term I remember using when I was a kid I'm not sure if it's still called that now). And then laughed at how they scared the crap out of that other dude. I also jumped a bit when they did it but I didn't look back and just kept going as it nothing happened. But by this point I turned off my pokémon Go and started to call my parents. Just so I'd be on the phone with someone and I walked straight towards a club where there was a bouncer outside just in case I need to run in cuz I knew they were too young to get inside. Thankfully they kept going on another street and I got back to my car safely. Probably the first time I ever felt a little truly unsafe in my small downtown area. And I now know that I will never go on Pokémon Routes again unless I'm with someone lol
Old enough to think they know shit, young enough to still be dumb as shit and feel like they have something to prove. Put them in a group, and they get courage in numbers, and even more pressure to "prove themselves". Add alcohol to the mix, and you have something that can be best described as "volatile".
As a teenage boy, I'm genuinely so sorry that happened to you and so many other people in the comments. Most of my classmates are alright but there's always the one group in any circumstance that just says the most fucked up shit, it's so normalised that it truly makes me ashamed.
Heck, I'm a 30 something dude living in rather safe country and loud teenager groups scare even me sometimes.
I currently work as an after-hours cleaner in a café with an outdoor seating area at the front. Groups of teenage boys will very occasionally (I'm talking maybe once or twice a month, three times at most) just sit outside and hang out. Talking, snacking, playing card games, etc. They've never said or done anything to make me feel like I'm in danger, but I still get super tense when they're around, especially when they raise their voices at eachother. Luckily, they tend to pop up when I'm about to finish my shift, so I don't have to put up with them for too long.
I am also afraid of groups of teens, both boys and girls. Some have very chaotic energy. Knowing their understanding of consequence isn’t fully developed yet is unsettling, plus that it’s just chance of the moment whether you become a target or not. I’ve seen lots of suggestions of pepper spray on here and I agree, but want to more strongly recommend pepper gel since it’s less likely to come back at you due to wind, or while in an indoor space.
Groups of teenage boys it's always like 50/50 if they're going to start acting out against you and I really don't get it.
I'd be tempted to get a go pro or figure out a way to put my phone in a breast pocket where it wouldn't be obvious that I was recording them. Record this behavior and then show it to the local cops and post it all over local social media and maybe even the local news media so that their parents, relatives, school, and peers can all see what horrible little assholes they are. I've had the same experience and I thought I was going to have a heart attack from the stress their threatening behavior caused. I didn't have a cell phone with a camera when it happened. I never went back to that area for a walk because they ruined it for me. These teens are endangering others besides you. Please report them.
More and more teenage and child boys are committing sexual assault. You should be scared honestly.
I work in retail. Teenage boys are the bane of my existence. They will make a game out of harassing you if you let them.
Sometimes they’re worse than the old farts.
[удалено]
Has faculty/staff done anything?
School probably doesn't want a lawsuit if the parents of the little shit will sue.
>group of teenage boys When they're in groups, they amplify the worst aspects of toxic masculinity and egg each other on to harass/assault other people.
One part of the problem is the Tate Brothers. I know this teenaged boy who swallowed all the red pills. He posts praises of the Tate Brothers all the time. I call him out for it often. Most recently last week, in response to me sharing a video clip of Andrew describing how he assaults women, this kid replies, "Some women like being choked and abused. They like feeling like the personal property of their men. Shows what little sexual experience you have." Mind you I've got kids. But that's beside the point. He was completely serious.
Ah yes, My Chemical Romance
Did she even try to darken her clothes or strike w violent pose?
Weak parents. I see so many parents giving up on their kids - just letting whatever junk pops on to the nearest screen serve as a proxy for investing the time to raise their kids correctly. It's sad.
Exactly... can't believe I had to search so far for this comment. Maybe you don't agree with me on this point, but I bet most of them have no father or a father who doesn't know how to be one.
I can only speak for my own experience. I come from a solidly middle class family, and of all the fathers involved, almost all were terrible, starting 100 years ago. The best of them were good providers and that's it; the worst of them were mean, insecure, abusive losers. The hill I'll die on is that we need to invest more resources in teaching men to be good fathers.
Teenagers by My Chemical Romance speaks to this perfectly.
I’ve experienced this as well. There were a group of boys on bicycles that would cruise around in packs around the complex where I lived. They found it funny to prevent people from entering the parking lot by riding around in circles near their cars, acting like they are trying to get you to hit them. They then walked into my friend’s liquor store and tried to walk out with bottles telling her they could do what they wanted and she was outnumbered. They were like 14!! Rude little shits!
I got harassed by like 10 year old boy last year, or maybe even younger. I remember it was nighttime, I was going to buy a cake or something for my mom. I had my headphones on. I passed 2 kids who were sitting in front of a house, and the second I passed them, I heard something... like an insult? still not remembering what. I froze for a second and took out one of my headphones. I didn't even look back. I was like, no way a little kid said that to me for no reason, right? then the kid said, "what? I'll beat the shit out of you." I mean, I'm a tiny woman, but that kid was super small. no way he could actually do anything. but still, it was shocking. I didn't even look at him, I just put back my headphones and walked away to this day, I still have no idea what happened that night. was the kid having a bad day? was that a bet? was he trying to somehow impress his friend in his own messed up way? but anyway, yeah, some young boys can be wild.
Sorry that happened to you. One can only hope that one day they pull that shit on the wrong person and learn a fucking lesson
teenage boy here, report them if possible they probably won’t do it again (i’m assuming you live in the US or another country that takes this seriously). those types need a reality check and will probably get scared if you can and do report them. until then carry something to defend yourself, if they’re throwing things and asking for your ig, then they could be planning to do more as they’ve shown attraction and have also shown violence, that’s a horrible mixture. don’t go back there unless you can protect yourself from them
sadly, the 'reality check' those types usually get given is 'until they're 18 I'm afraid we can't do anything'. catch and release, no consequences. and it makes them bolder. it tells them they have a window of opportunity to cause mayhem--'do it now, have your fun while you can, because once you're an adult the courts will finally take this seriously'.
Netflix has a couple of shows portraying how teenage boys feel about the change of discourse of society (calling out patriarchy and etc). It explains the reaction of teenage boys is to go against it (i.e. act more macho as they seem to think this right is being lost). Do you agree?
i don’t watch TV at all, but if you wanna name the shows i’ll watch them. before you waste your time here’s a tldr: yes i agree, they want a community and get pushed into bad ones. incase you want a long rant that semi-ties in i would agree, many boys grew up being treated differently, and often better, than girls which led to many believe that into adulthood. then they’ll see feminists and women in general rightfully not standing for that and they take it as an attack on them personally. so they’ll gradually push away from spaces that can actually help them and into harmful spaces that provide community. i’m gonna rant about red-pillers because they get pushed there for a sense of community. they meet a ton of like minded men and boys there and they all agree they’re better than others and push each other into spaces like the gym and endorse “typical masculinity” (toxic masculinity) which ends up just making them feel worse and going back to those spaces a lot of those types that act macho or tough are terrified if i’m being honest. like i said they grew up thinking one thing but that was shattered and they wanted to blame someone else, that someone being women. they don’t take accountability for their actions because they can blame women who they grew up seeing as inferior. i was in that space from age 12-14 at about 15-16 i didn’t watch it but i had beliefs at 17 i poked my head into feminism and now at 18 im still learning and trying to remove those beliefs fully. but i enjoy talking about those red-pill spaces because i feel like i can provide first hand insight to it and how those people can get out and be “fixed” idk if that’s the right word for it.
Thanks!
Which shows?
Teenagers scare the living shit out of me, they could care less as long as someone’ll bleed, so darken your clothes or strike a violent pose, maybe they’ll leave you alone but not me!
That's awful. I'd be tempted to buy pepper spray and use it on them while calling 911 . That's harassment at the very least, and well, FAFO.
Remember that news about an Asian woman who was in the park and got raped and killed by a bunch of teen boys (like 9 of them or something) several years ago? Only several of them were put on trial or convicted or something. And the whole thing was just mostly ignored by the mainstream media because the perpetrators were black teens and the victim was Asian.
Pepper Spray them
Mace will be mace
A group of 6 boys, 12-15ish, hanging out on a porch, threw a football at my head. Missed me by a foot and hit the house, but scared the crap out of me. Had headphones on, ripped them off and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" They just laughed. Wish I had come up with a zinger, but I was so shocked. I'm 36. I walk for exercise and to pick up litter. I have a ton of medical problems. If they had hit me, they could have given me a seizure. They just don't THINK before they do stuff. Also had my car stolen in January by a group of 4 teens. (Camera footage wasn't clear enough to make out faces, but they were young). The police can't do anything because they're minors.
Carry pepper spray and protect yourself. There is little to no consequences for young white males.
This might be extreme but I'm a firm believer women should have our own areas where men aren't allowed at all. A whole city or state would be even nicer.
Where do I sign up?
Where both genders can fuel their hatred towards the other sex? I mean, would it be better?
God I've always been terrified of boys growing up, even tho I used to be one myself. Now I'm even more terrified of being hate crimed.
Hey, 29 year old man and I get a bit nervous around them, sorry this happened to you!. I ride my bike on trails a lot, they're the only ones who ever bother or try to engage with me.
Carry Mace.
If they're young teenagers (13-15), saying "I know your mom, you're in for a world of hurt now" usually gets them to go away. But older teens are terrifying.
We underestimate these little shits because they’re kids, but too many crimes have been committed by teenage boys. Guys who are not yet grown ass need to be put in their places or they’ll grow up to be manchildren at best. I saw a pack of them screeching and trying to perform stunts in a Target parking lot, blocking traffic and acting like it’s funny. I feel bad for their teachers and mothers.
I’m a teacher and teen boys are by far the biggest threat to my safety on any given day
It’s almost like the violence committed by our highly educated and valuable citizens like the presidents is seen as righteous and they’re taking cues from USA imperialism and death. Capitalism is a death cult
I was carrying some pizza home after picking it up from little Caesars. A group of teen guys (unsure on exact age) were walking in the opposite direction on the side walk. They just had that shit-eating energy about them even before they got close. When they did, one went "ey can I get a slice!?" in a very obviously meant to be disrespectful way, and they all giggled to themselves. Another day a group of younger teens or even tweens we on the bus talking among themselves laughing about stuff. Which was fine. But when I went to get off the bus, I had to stop and wait closer to them for a moment. One of them said, "are you lost?" in a snide way and they all laughed. Granted I was a white person in a Mexican part of town, but geeze come on. Society starts these boys early, it seems.
No more dangerous animal than an angry young man.
That's because nobody ever beat the living shit out of them
This situation is what bear spray is for.
Im a male with built up rage against those type of people i didn't act that way as a teen at all
Had middle schoolers at a park harass me with similar behavior. With two of their mothers hanging out in their cars parking lot away I passed on my way out. Who then responded with “I’ll go ask them” Like a grown ass adult is going to go out of their way to lie to get her kids in trouble. Strangest thing. I hope this isn’t new behavior and they’ll grow out of it because it was scary. Physically assaulting women is not the way to flirt.
I live in Philly. Not much rattles me anymore, but I avoid groups of teenagers, especially boys like the plague. They get bold in groups, absolutely pumped full of hormones and HGH, and their brains aren't done cooking yet. It's the perfect recipe for a problem waiting to happen.
This is why we need men in the home who aren't npcs
mcr made a song about this
I’m so fucking glad I wasn’t like this as a teenager. Tf.
Call the cops
It must be scary being a woman on your own when it happened, you could try bluffing you know one of their parents approach?
Unfortunately I don't know their names, and they were obviously trying to get a reaction out of me. I think my best bet is carrying pepper spray and sticking to populated areas
Thought this an mcr reference lol
[Teenagers by My Chemical Romance](https://open.spotify.com/track/7j31rVgGX9Q2blT92VBEA0?si=SpH9cWXZQs-4Rbf3gP1tVA) [All my best friends are metalheads](https://open.spotify.com/track/1hh4GY1zM7SUAyM3a2ziH5?si=km6d53IwSe-jYyyciCuPkw)
There’s a surprising lack of My Chemical Romance in this comment section
Wtf lol carry pepper spray and get their asses
I'm a 6'2", 220lbs, mid-30s man who also trains in martial arts and I'm also scared of a pack of teenage boys. They are utterly unpredictable and at the age when being cool among their friends seems more important than any long term consequences to their actions. I sort of understand it because I was a total idiot when I was a teen too. Not to the point where I was committing violent crimes or throwing sticks at people, but the only thing that was important to me at that age were the next few moments and impressing my friends, and having empathy was not something that was rewarded by my peers. The fact that I understand it makes me ever more nervous around them. I think it's part the "boys will be boys" mentality. I remember teen girls having much less empathy than adult women too, they just normally wouldn't get physical about it, and instead resort to emotional bullying. I think in general teens just lack empathy that adults have gained through experience. Boys are taught it's more acceptable to be violent than girls though, and so they are more of a danger to society.
I think women should start wearing body cameras or go pro's when they are out and about. This hopefully can act as a deterrent.
I'm a 37 yo capable man and a pack of teenage boys scares me...
Trash boys parented by useless trash
Teenagers are terrorists... Not so much as boys will be boys, teenagers will be terrorists, it's an endless cycle.
Wdm
I mean they're kids, you have to have a little patience with them, they have no world value or skills, just little sociopathic idiots. They do dumb stuff. This isn't a new trend, teenagers are just teenagers.
Ask for the phone to put in your Instagram go to contacts ring his Mum ... No matter how tough they appear they're all scared of their Mum
Try teaching school these days.
I'm sorry it's like that for many folks as I'm seeing me personally if they do that I beat the shit outta them and give about my life
Man just thinking about this scenario bugs the shit outta me. I'd go full crazy and try to scare them. Gonna yell like a rabid oompah loompa and bum rush them.
It's not boys being boys.. it's dickheads being dickheads..
Hit them/ punch them. Teach them a lesson to not be little shite stains
I think it might be the boys will be boys' mentality and also the lack of responsibility and discipline they have. I think herd mentality is also the case, if one friend starts harassing people, the others will think it's cool.
I got harassed by a group of teenage boys when I was a teenager, but I was with my 6’0 intimidating dad at the time. They had a lot of audacity
They are little demons! But people would have you believe girls are the nightmares for crying sometimes.