I was recently watch a video from my favorite youtuber, about a couple of experiences she had. One happened to her friend, who had a man buying her drinks and felt he had the right to force himself upon her. The other was about her own experience being called beautiful, and thanking the person, and the person got mad because she didn't stop to talk to him, because she had somewhere else to be.
I remember when I was a teenager, and my friends and I thought it was great when a guy would drive by us and honk...I'm 28 now, and things have changed. We live in a world, where terrible things happen, and unfortunately females in particular, typically can't let their guard down, for safety reasons. So if you're walking down the street and some one starts shouting at you, tell me how that wouldn't be intimidating. I like being told I'm beautiful...by my husband... and that's about it. I don't want to hear it being thrown out at me, when I'm walking down the street and headed somewhere.
I personally think my fave youtuber was far kinder than I was, with my situation last week. I was on my supper from work, and was rushing down to Heroes Beacon, because I collect Walking Dead action figures (true story). So I'm walking down the street and a guy shouts at me "Most Beautiful girl in the world". This was enough to irritate me, but I said nothing and kept walking. He continued, "What, you're not going to stop"? "No". This for some reason was weird to him, "I paid you a compliment". "And"? There was some muttering as I kept walking, I didn't pay much attention, but that was enough to piss me RIGHT off. As I got my action figures, I was still stewing, and had to go back the same way... and basically prepared myself to deal with this guy again. Fortunately, he wasn't there, but I got honked at. I was ready to flip, until I saw my friend waving at me from his car, my whole demeanor changed as I waved back (BTW good timing Josh).
Telling a girls she's beautiful, doesn't mean she owes you something. Maybe I could have been more polite and said thank you, but one says thank you, when one is happy to receive something, and I wasn't happy to be receiving this attention. It can be scary, and I don't feel anyone has the right to make anyone else feel that way.
I'll admit, I'm probably more jaded by an experience that I had as a younger teen. I was spending an afternoon with two of my girl friends, and we were hanging out at a mall complex, when we ran into some rather large guys we went to school with. One had made it quite clear he was interested in my friend, and she was rather uncomfortable with his advances. It was at this point, she thought maybe we should leave. So we walked (because we walked everywhere) to a different complex. We ducked into a stationary store (because the existed then). We used to go in there a lot because most of us liked to draw. We were near the back of the store when the boys followed us into the store. This, was pretty scary. Fortunately, the guy at the store let us out the back room and we got away. This is something that has stuck with me... and that's why my guard is up as much as it is.
I feel like some guys, need to understand, acting like this isn't a compliment, it's disrespectful, and can be intimidating... and if you're cool with intimidating a woman this way...what does it say about you
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