Gransnet forums

Chat

Why do men spit in public?

(90 Posts)
Willow10 Sun 16-Feb-20 13:38:54

I know there are a few males on GN so maybe they could answer, because it baffles me. Men spit everywhere - in the street, on the playing field etc. But I can't say I have ever witnessed women spitting. A man just walked past my window and spat on the pavement, which turned my stomach. Is there a good reason for it? hmm

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 12:59:06

Max do you get off on posting about scratching genitalia? Do you wear a dirty raincoat as well?

knspol Mon 17-Feb-20 13:02:22

This is a new one on me. Only experienced this when traveling in China where it used to be very common but determined efforts by government have reduced it considerably. Not seen this in Hong Kong at all from locals only from mainland Chinese visitors.

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 13:02:42

Max I’ve reported your post - the sexualised comments are imo unacceptable but the point about children is particularly awful. You sound very creepy - do you watch children especially?

gillyknits Mon 17-Feb-20 13:11:33

I wonder if it’s more of a northern thing. Quite common where a I live and mostly young males. I can understand it if you’ve been down a coal mine all day but not if you’ve just been to school.
Send them all to Singapore where spitting is a serious offence. It’s disgusting and now when infections can be really serious, it’s extremely anti social..

BlueRuby Mon 17-Feb-20 13:18:15

I live in Bristol. I see this nasty habit all the time. Yuk :-(

Brigidsdaughter Mon 17-Feb-20 14:05:08

Upbringing

Stansgran Mon 17-Feb-20 14:13:40

I've just been told by my 16 year old granddaughter that you have to spit during sport!!!! If you swallow when out of breath there is the possibility of choking. I say good as it would reduce the population of spitters. can't say I've noticed women football players spitting,or rugby of either sex.
And yes I remember signs on Liverpool buses and defense de craché as recently as the seventies in France .

Stansgran Mon 17-Feb-20 14:16:05

I must add that for years I thought the white splodges on Durham pavements was a strange kind of algae until someone enlightened me about chewing gum. I lead and have always led a sheltered life.

Jens Mon 17-Feb-20 14:26:48

I remember the warnings about spitting and the spread of tuberculosis, which in various parts of the world is rearing it’s ugly head again. The fine was £5.00 a lot of money back 8n the 50/60s. Maybe they should start reinforcing the whole anti spitting thing again, make the fine £500.00 now. It’s easy t9 spit into a tissue and dispose of it, any other way is just disgusting , selfish and very bad manners. And that goes for sportsmen, mostly footballers as well, spitting on the grass is gross.

Annanan Mon 17-Feb-20 14:39:23

Worse than spitting in the street is watching men at traffic lights in their cars picking their noses! I have never seen women do it but men seem to regard it as a pleasant past time while they’re waiting for the lights to change.

SueDoku Mon 17-Feb-20 14:43:18

I used to work in an FE College, and some of the (always male) students had a habit of spitting just outside the doors to the car park. They'd been asked/told not to, but persisted - right up until the day when we had a large staff/ student council meeting and a student who used a self-propelled wheelchair asked them to imagine what he felt when he came into college... ?
He pulled no punches, and described the sensation of feeling unclean and having no way to avoid it in some detail ?
It hardly ever happened after that..!!

Merryweather Mon 17-Feb-20 15:25:13

It makes me feel sick to see it on TV or in day to day existence. Utterly disgusting behaviour and quite unnecessary. A delightful way to spread germs. When I see people doing it in the street I usually say how repulsive it is. One day I know I'll get caught out and be in the receiving end of abuse.

sarahellenwhitney Mon 17-Feb-20 15:31:13

Salsaqueen
That is clearly obvious. maybe the majority have more respect, or the street cleaning vehicles which as a child I can remember where I lived, would once again be out in full force

Phloembundle Mon 17-Feb-20 15:39:07

I'm afraid most of the men I come across when out and about don't even have enough respect for me to wait till I have passed. I have even seen girls doing it. I once told my son that if I ever saw him doing it I would knock his block off because it makes me feel sick, even though I am a retired nurse.

Dillonsgranma Mon 17-Feb-20 15:43:33

Horrible dirty habit ?. And it spreads disease . Should be huge fine for spitting

Dec46 Mon 17-Feb-20 15:49:34

I think I must be living on another planet or walking round with my eyes closed,stepping into all kinds of yuk,because as I said earlier I can't ever remember seeing this happen.

Alexa Mon 17-Feb-20 15:49:42

Spitting on exposed ground is less likely to spread diseases than spitting into a tissue or hankie and then putting said t or h into pocket or under sleeve. This is because when the spittle is exposed to sunlight the sunlight kills many germs. TB germs are killed by sunlight. The problem is of course that most people don't live on farms or large gardens where the spittle has a chance to be so exposed before it is trodden on or worse.

Willow10 Mon 17-Feb-20 15:51:31

Just read your post Maxblank. I don't know where your mind is - (or maybe I do)! The question was about spitting, nothing else! angry

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 15:54:59

Willow I reported it but HQ seem to think posts about children and their genitalia quite acceptable as it’s still there. Would you like to report ot as well - it’s creepy and if I were in the park with my dgc I wouldn’t want him in the same county as me.

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 15:56:43

Funny because if you try to discuss what constitutes a racist post, it’s deleted immediately as it might encourage random racists who read the posts. But posts like this wouldn’t encourage random paedophiles ? Yuk

Willow10 Mon 17-Feb-20 15:56:52

Have done suziewoozie. Creepy.

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 15:59:03

Thank you Willow. Any body else?

suziewoozie Mon 17-Feb-20 16:05:46

The whole post is utterly disgusting - the sort of post that makes my flesh crawl. Nice advert for GN and what HQ considers appropriate. No doubt I’ll have a post deleted soon for personal attack on a poster ?

CBBL Mon 17-Feb-20 16:23:12

I totally agree that it's a horrid habit! Sadly, I do think that seeing footballers/rugby players spitting when on the field encourages this behaviour. I agree with EllanVannin that in public, people could simply carry tissues and use those in the event of needing to get rid of phlem.
Sadly, on the continent, I have seen both men and women spitting in the street (in Greece &Bulgaria for instance), and often this was older people.

Aepgirl Mon 17-Feb-20 16:42:57

Men who spit are just rude, and don’t know any better. I hate it.