the honking

It's not new to me. Men in New York holler at women all the time. When I lived in Harlem dudes made me feel like a celebrity named Snowflake.

Here's the difference though: in New York, men do it in full awareness of what they're doing. It's not involuntary. They show their presence-of-mind with a dumb smile, a bobbling head, or a weird about-to-catch-a-football stance, some mixy of sheepishness and brazenness.

But in São paulo dudes honk at women the way you or I flick the right turn signal when we see our exit coming up. It is reflexive. I saw a girl with an onion booty crossing the street to what amounted to a horn-tapping version of the wave. But the men barely seemed to be looking at her. Just a glance, before returning to their phone calls, yelling-at-kids, etc. 

So unmoved do they seem by the juicy asses they acknowledge that you wonder if the acknowledgement has become a tedious chore. You look up to see who is honking at you and the honker gives an impassive nod, as though you just thanked him for something basic and unworthy of thanks.

(Is 'tedious chore' redundant?) 

I think this is dangerous. Because women don't react to car horns honking. They seem accustomed to thinking that a horn-honk is merely show of appreciation for their tight jeans or short skirt, or in my case, slutty dress they didn't realize was so old it's see-through. So they tune it out and stare straight ahead. What will happen when a honk is a warning that some brakes are failing or a rogue tomato cart is gaining on a woman fast?

I'm no anthropologist, but I wonder if this is all because men in the USA are not supposed to honk and holler, while men in Brazil are totally supposed to honk and holler. In the US it is still fun for men because they know that they are doing something degrading and wrong. Here beneath the equator, where sin does not exist, degrading women is no longer fun.

This makes me feel sad for Brazilian men. I'm going to start a campaign of like BRING THE FUN BACK FOR DUDES and try to convince pundits to discourage men here from honking at women. So they can start enjoying it again. 

this taxista honked at some chicks and Tickby snapped his photo immediately