Creepy

E

Asked by a creepy male colleague what I was doing at the weekend. When I answered – horse riding, he said ‘what is it with little girls and ponies’.

Justrealising

When I was at school and about 12 or 13 years old, there was a boy who would say that he loved me, and come up close, and stroke my arms and back, and ping my bra. I told him multiple times I didn’t like him and to go away, but he didn’t stop. It lasted at least a couple of terms. It’s only recently as an adult that I’ve thought back and realised he wasn’t just creepy.

My family decided one year to book an activity holiday with Neilson, for a change. The vacation was super great with nice accommodation and friendly peers (although there were several instances of boats capsizing etc. in some water-based activities). However, working at the resort was a photographer who took photos of everybody and if you wanted photos you would purchase them. Therefore, you couldn’t not have your picture taken. It didn’t really bother me with him taking my picture (although I got that gut feeling that he was kind of a creepy guy) and generally ignored it. That was until he started approaching me and several other girls – not boys btw – from behind (really quietly so you couldn’t move out the way because you didn’t notice) and placed his hands on my hips. He then tickled me and it was really disturbing. He did this several times and it really unnerved me. I was only 12 at the time and he was a middle-aged man. Because he didn’t speak English I didn’t know how to communicate that it made me feel uncomfortable. I really did feel sorry for some of the other girls he did this to though, because they were wearing bikinis (I didn’t then) and so his hands would be on their skin. maybe I’m overreacting? But I think in general everyone should just assume that other people do not want to be touched on the hips randomly and repeatedly.

Sophie

First off, my real name isnt Sophie – its just a pseudonym. Anyways, im 15 years old (turning 16 pretty soon) and i play golf. Ive played golf for about 5 years now, and im getting pretty good. I have golf practice every monday where other juniors in the club meet up as well – i think we are about 22 in total and we are only 2 girls. Thats cool to me though, everyone is nice and helpfull – thats what i thought. So last monday i was at practice, just as usual. Then my coach (who is a male and about 30 years old) came up to me, and wanted to correct my swing. Apperantly he thougt, that i was holding on to the golf club too loose. He then got behind me, wrapped his arms around be and put his fingers in mine to show how i was supposed to hold on to it. Then he stepped back, and said to me “you know, its proberly because youre a woman, who was made to cook in a kitchen all day, and stir in pots that your grip is so loose” and then laughed out loud. All the other guys laughed really hard as well. Not only am i the only female there, im one of youngest as well (some of the guys are 25). I felt so uncomfortable. He had never touched me like that, or been so sexistic. I met him randomly at the golf club yesterday, and he just sent me this weird smile, and talked so much with me and made plenty of jokes. That might not seem to weird, but he NEVER do that to the boys or just anyone else! So ive started to think about it, and only now do i come to the realization that im scared of him, and what he will do. i havent told my parents or anyone, cause what if im just overthinking it?

Meagain

Just leaving a feminist meeting and we get wolfwhistled by one of 3 men sitting on a bench at the end of the road. I say “fuck off” & what response do I get? “no need to be rude” !!! (like wolfwhistling isn’t rude???) and “Sorry, didn’t realise you were lesbians” (like lesbianism is the ONLY reason he will accept as to why we rejected him). No mate! I just want to walk down the street without being sexually harrassed! To top all that off on the way TO the meeting some weird clown blowing balloons decided to block my path where I was walking and blow a cazoo in some strange sexy tune while rubbing his sausage shaped balloon over my chest and torso! You might wonder what I was wearing to attract this kind of sexual harassment (not that dressing provocatively gives anyone the right to harass me) – a tshirt that said “Love cannot be clicked, porn kills love”, jeans, trainers and no make up. If anything said “I am not sexually available to you” it would be that outfit! FFS

A

Every year, when all the older kids were off for exams, our school ran activity days for the younger kids. There were craft classes you could do at the school, or sometimes trips to the cinema or museum, but the main event was always the trip to a theme park. My parents couldn’t afford for me to go there though, but my friends could, so I found myself stuck in school doing papercrafts with a bunch of younger kids that I didn’t know. And G. G was in my year since primary and seemed to have learning difficulties of some kind, although nobody ever spoke about it. It was just something in the way he spoke and went on. Most people awkwardly avoided him, which couldn’t have been easy for him, but whenever he spoke to me, it made me feel really uncomfortable. I could never figure out why. I thought I was just a bad person. It occurred to me recently that I think I’ve maybe repressed a memory or something….I can’t be sure, but it kinda feels like I have. Like there’s something that I’m missing. I thought that my anxiety and depression just stemmed from the fact that I had an unhappy childhood, which my parents have always refused to acknowledge. My parents hated each other and constantly fought, but “stayed together for the kids” I was bullied a lot and had only 1 proper friend before the age of 10 because I’ve always been very shy, socialising can be very difficult for me and she moved away a year after we became friends. It just doesn’t feel like that’s the whole story though. Something in my gut tells me there’s something else. I remember way back in primary, I couldn’t have been older than around 7, after morning break or lunch (I can’t remember which) a load of kids in my class, mostly boys, were all around me laughing and yelling that I had been kissing G in the playground. I said it wasn’t me. They laughed even more and kept yelling it, they wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was definitely me, they saw me on the ground with him, kissing him. I kept saying it wasn’t me, I had literally not the faintest idea what they were talking about, no recollection, but they were just so damn insistant! Then G said it was me as well, and it didn’t matter what I said after that. For years afterwards, all the way up into high school, people I went to primary with would occassionally say they remembered it and laugh all over again. Even people that I didn’t know had heard the story from other people. I still was adamant that it hadn’t been me. Then, years later on activity day when all my friends were away, I found myself going home on a school bus that was almost empty except for the driver, me, G and 2 younger girls. I sat right at the front, hoping nobody would speak to me. The girls got off at the same stop and a minute or 2 after that G came and sat on the seat across the aisle from me. I can’t remember what he was saying, I just remember that suddenly he was sitting right next to me and I was pressed against the wall trying to ignore him but he just kept moving closer. Then he tried to take my hand from my leg and I pulled it away and stood up, moving towards the driver so I could get off 3 stops earlier than I needed to. Just as the bus was stopping, G said to me, and this is the only thing I remember him saying “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anybody what just happened.” I wish I could remember what it was that he had been saying… There’s has to be a reason that being around him made me feel uncomfortable even before the bus happened, right? There was a reason I was nervous from the minute I got on that bus and saw he was there. A reason why I instinctively didn’t want to be left alone with him? And there must be a reason that so many people have this memory of me that I have no recollection of, right? So many questions now, but the one that I keep coming back to like a broken record, over and over, is…if I was the one kissing him then why would I just forget that? What the hell happened here?

Roo

Stalked around Sparkbrook for at least half an hour by a man with yellow teeth, beard, tracksuit bottoms. Starts by making kissy noises at me, then follows me silently from the residential roads to the main road. Can see him in shop windows as I go. As I wait to cross Highgate road he stands beside me on the pavement. I turn to him and say, “You alright there?” because I don’t want him to think I’m scared. He follows me to the garage, then back up Ladypool road. I go into Raj’s grocery store and stay for twenty minutes until he is gone.

Creepy Man Frim The Motherland

I was working in a supermarket, when this man who looked to be in his mid 20’s came up to me. He had a thick African accent. I figured he needed help finding something, but he started asking questions, very personal questions. But the mist off putting question he asked me was am I a virgin. He then asked when I was working next time. I wasn’t going to tell him so I told him I work Sundays which I don’t, after he left I told my supervisor what happened. And she said there was nothing she could do about it. Since where I worked was close to my college, I couldn’t look for another place to get a job.