# Girl on bus penalized for having big 'uns **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 17, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161 "2007-07-17T18:15:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/41 "2007-07-17T20:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=hotflungwok] Did you look at her picture? If it was bouncy enough for her to distract him, then the bus was going down stairs and he had other problems. [/QUOTE] Yes, but driving the bus down the stairs is a safety issue! Had that girl not been on the bus, he would have stayed on the street! My only real comment is that I am no longer 14, but a good looking woman can turn my head. In 99.999% of cases, I can deal. I can even force myself not to look. And even if I look, I can still function. But every once in a blue moon, I, uh… Woah. _crash_ ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/42 "2007-07-17T20:36:16Z")
[QUOTE=Anaamika] :smack: :smack: Oh God. All you men. 😛 [/QUOTE] Hey, we like boobies. But I still think the driver was a loser and the lady wasnt at fault. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/43 "2007-07-17T20:38:36Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom] Maybe it was a bumpy ride, and she was, um, “bouncy”. [/QUOTE] ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_0ix2D6O5Ak/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/_0ix2D6O5Ak?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/44 "2007-07-17T20:45:34Z")
[QUOTE=zelie zelerton] What exactly is he being ‘distracted’ by? A woman? He’s surely seen women before. Her clothing? He’s seen clothing before. If the driver were perhaps 14 then I could understand that he could look at an adult woman and be unable to think about anything but sex. But the idea that an adult male is unable to control himself is ridiculous. What? It would be ok for me to get ‘distracted’ everytime I see some hottie on the platform and be unable to drive my train? Yeah right. Any professional driver does not allow themselves to be distracted by something so mundane and ordinary as what the passengers look like. This driver purports to be a professional carrying out a professional job - shouting at passengers just to humiliate them is not part of that. [/QUOTE] Jeebus H. Christ, thank you for that, dude. I’m amazed when people say the driver was right. Is he 14 or so horny that he can’t think of anything else? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/45 "2007-07-17T20:51:01Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I am not sure about Germany but in this country a GUY with boobs bigger than the woman’s could go out topless in public and get on the bus and nothing could be done about it! 😕 [/QUOTE] There have been attempts, [notably in Ohio](http://www.derfcity.com/o/heboob2.html), to do something about that. Particulary if the guy is hairy. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/46 "2007-07-17T21:06:20Z")
[QUOTE=Cervaise] ![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/_0ix2D6O5Ak/maxresdefault.jpg)https://www.youtube.com/embed/_0ix2D6O5Ak?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque [/QUOTE] This video was recorded directly off of the bus’s video camera. Now can’t you see why the driver was distracted? ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/47 "2007-07-17T21:41:59Z")
So if he raped her would it be HER fault? Sorry, that sort of logic is sexist and inane. She was wearing a normal piece of clothing, low-cut, but it’s not as though she were naked or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/48 "2007-07-17T21:43:12Z")
[QUOTE=SiouxChief] This video was recorded directly off of the bus’s video camera. Now can’t you see why the driver was distracted? [/QUOTE] Good try! I guess my problem is I’ve been in Germany long enough to be desensitized to things like that. Europeans don’t seem to have a problem with nudity like we do in the US. (which actually is one of the reasons I find Europe appealing) if it doesn’t bug me, you’d think this guy would be immune too. But then, I get laid. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/49 "2007-07-17T22:13:34Z")
[QUOTE=ratatoskK] So if he raped her would it be HER fault? Sorry, that sort of logic is sexist and inane. She was wearing a normal piece of clothing, low-cut, but it’s not as though she were naked or anything. [/QUOTE] Uh, what? Who in the world said that? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/50 "2007-07-17T22:14:58Z")
Now, suppose the driver had been one of those Afghan Taliban guys. Those fellas get severely distracted if they see a woman’s hair, or if she flashes her (gasp) neck. Would the driver have been right to boot a woman off the bus for not being “properly covered”? A driver’s repressive concept of modesty does not give him the right to force his riders to comply with it. The driver was out of line. He denied service without cause, and he should be reprimanded. Make him drive the bus that serves the strip clubs and bordellos 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/51 "2007-07-17T22:21:15Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] Good try! I guess my problem is I’ve been in Germany long enough to be desensitized to things like that. Europeans don’t seem to have a problem with nudity like we do in the US. (which actually is one of the reasons I find Europe appealing) if it doesn’t bug me, you’d think this guy would be immune too. But then, I get laid. [/QUOTE] Well, I was joking about the video, of course. Primarily because the video is so far removed from reality. The woman in the story looks like she’s wearing a burqa by comparison. Again, I see no reason why anyone would be distracted by her. But I wasn’t there, and I’m not him. He was driving, and he was in charge. She’s just going to have to deal with it. We’ve all had days when we’re a bit testy. Can’t we give him the benefit of the doubt? (and if it becomes a pattern with him, then can him.) ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/52 "2007-07-17T22:37:53Z")
[QUOTE=SiouxChief] Well, I was joking about the video, of course. Primarily because the video is so far removed from reality. The woman in the story looks like she’s wearing a burqa by comparison. Again, I see no reason why anyone would be distracted by her. But I wasn’t there, and I’m not him. He was driving, and he was in charge. She’s just going to have to deal with it. We’ve all had days when we’re a bit testy. Can’t we give him the benefit of the doubt? (and if it becomes a pattern with him, then can him.) [/QUOTE] Nope. Because being testy doesn’t give you the right to take it out on an innocent person. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/53 "2007-07-18T02:00:23Z")
The more I think about this, the more I think we have a case of a bus driver just doing his job, and a woman whose sense of self-entitlement is so inflated that instead of just following instructions, she gets all pissy about it and calls a newspaper to complain. The quote she gave in the [Yahoo article](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070716/od_nm/germany_sexy_dc;_ylt=AghCXky.yKNHZmOXMS9Ixi3MWM0F) in the OP made it all so severe and humiliating: > [@](#): > > “Suddenly he stopped the bus,” the woman named Debora C. told Bild newspaper. “He opened the door and shouted at me ‘Your cleavage is distracting me every time I look into my mirror and I can’t concentrate on the traffic. If you don’t sit somewhere else, I’m going to have to throw you off the bus.’” But if you read the [English Translation](http://www.google.com/language_tools) of the [German article](http://www.all-in.de/nachrichten/allgaeu/rundschau/art2757,132751) linked to in the OP, the driver sounds much less harsh: so much so that the woman at first thinks he’s joking! > [@](#): > > It sits down in front right on the first seat in the bus. > But at a stop the bus driver addresses it: Their sight confuses it, it can not on the traffic concentrate, then it cannot drive on. The driver places the attractive young woman before the choice: Either it puts itself then that it cannot see it also in the mirror to no more, or it must step out. > Debora Moscone holds first for a joke. But the driver is it Ernst. Thus it adds and sits down directly behind the driver, where it is separate from it by an obscure disk. At the station arrived, it places the driver to the speech. It affirmed its procedure and refers to Paragraf 6 of the transport order, which gives it the right to instruct the passengers where they are to put themselves. Of course, I would prefer to have an impartial eye-witness tell their view of what happened. But since none is quoted in either story, we’ll just have to make due. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/54 "2007-07-18T02:05:50Z")
> [@](#): > > The driver places the attractive young woman before the choice: Either it puts itself then that it cannot see it also in the mirror to no more, or it must step out. Also! It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/55 "2007-07-18T02:14:15Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] Also! It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again. [/QUOTE] It is burning his eye! The driver was out of line, but the “translation” makes it all worth it… 😃 He sounds like a creep, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/56 "2007-07-18T02:47:40Z")
> [@SiouxChief](#): > > The more I think about this, the more I think we have a case of a bus driver just doing his job, and a woman whose sense of self-entitlement is so inflated that instead of just following instructions, she gets all pissy about it and calls a newspaper to complain. “Excuse me? Sir?” “…hm? Yes?” “Sir, before I can continue this route, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to move to another seat.” “I beg your pardon?” “It’s your nose, sir. It’s extremely large, and I can see it in my rear-view mirror. I find it unacceptably distracting. Could you please move to a seat where your nose is not visible to me?” “…Is this… some kind of a joke?” “Sir, PLEASE! You are inconveniencing these other passengers. Any distraction to me presents a danger to these people and to pedestrians. I’ve already explained that I can’t concentrate on the traffic because of the size of your nose. Now, I will ask you one last time to move, or else I’m going to have to throw you off the bus.” No, not humiliating at all. ---
**Author:** ![zelie\_zelerton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/59ef9b/32.png) [@zelie\_zelerton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zelie_zelerton)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/57 "2007-07-18T03:23:27Z")
Yes, passengers are required to follow instructions. But that does not mean the driver can just issue any old instruction. What if he told black passengers to go to the back of the bus because he found their dark skin unnerving - would that be ok? What if he told somebody in a wheelchair they could not ride the bus because he felt uncomfortable being around them - would that be ok? Ordering a passenger around because she happens to be of a particular gender is way out of line. Essentially he has sexually harrassed her by making unwelcome comments about her breasts - comments which did not need to be made. And I’m sorry, but I cannot believe that any adult can be ‘distracted’ by a member of the opposite sex to the point they cannot do their job. Sure there are attractive people out there and yes, I’ll confirm, driving can get repetitive and fantasising and daydreaming is a part of that. But to be so aroused (and let’s face it, that’s what ‘distracted’ means here) that one cannot function is a complete nonsense. Adults can control themselves. Yes even when surrounded by boobies, amazing as it seems. Would this sort of conduct be ‘understandable’ from a schoolteacher with a class of 17 year olds? Of course not. The driver has a responsibility and it is up to him to carry that out without making an idiot of himself or by bothering passengers. ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/58 "2007-07-18T03:44:36Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] What do you guys think? [/QUOTE] I think I want a shirt just like that! It’s a really cute top and similar to several I have. I have never been removed from any mode of public transportation due to wearing any of them. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/59 "2007-07-18T04:17:39Z")
[QUOTE=eleanorigby] It is burning his eye! The driver was out of line, but the “translation” makes it all worth it… 😃 [/QUOTE] “But the driver is it Ernst.” was the line that made me chuckle. That’s good stuff. At least the translation has better grammar than I do. Regarding the OP, once again I should clarify my position. I am not in favor of discrimination, whether by race or gender. This to me is not about gender, or even about boobs. I’ve been married for 10 years and seen all 3 of my kids nursed on breast. Sort of takes all of the sex-appeal out of them, you know? (Well, mostly heh). In fact I sort of wish this had happened to a man, so we could get past the boobs and focus on the issue. To me the issue is that the guy driving the 12-ton vehicle around pedestrians is the guy who gets to decide what he’s distracted by while he’s driving. (Not that he would have control over it). He’s responsible for the lives of the pedestrians on the street, as well as the passengers. If I were in charge, I would ensure that my drivers were not the sort to get distracted easily. But if distracted while on the road, I’d hope to hell they’d do something about it. And once again, if a driver tended to get distracted too easily, then he’s out. [QUOTE=zelie zelerton] And I’m sorry, but I cannot believe that any adult can be ‘distracted’ by a member of the opposite sex to the point they cannot do their job. [/QUOTE] I can’t either, honestly. Especially the woman in question…I don’t see any appeal at all. Which is why I think that there’s more to this story; she’s pissed at the driver and trying to get him fired. ---
**Author:** ![SiouxChief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@SiouxChief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiouxChief)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161/60 "2007-07-18T04:19:51Z")
[QUOTE=FaerieBeth] I think I want a shirt just like that! It’s a really cute top and similar to several I have. I have never been removed from any mode of public transportation due to wearing any of them. [/QUOTE] It is a cute top, isn’t it? Maybe we should have a line of them made up with the words, “PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD” written across the chest! 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/girl-on-bus-penalized-for-having-big-uns/412161.md?page=4)