We’re all pretty down with the idea that touching people without their consent is, generally speaking, Definitely Bad now, right?
Yes, good.
And we all know that saying gross, sexist, creepy, or rude things is also Bad, yes?
OK! Good. Moving on to our next category: Creepy Staring!
This new campaign from the Victorian state government is here to remind everyone – but especially that one dude on your commute – that *anything* you do that makes women feel uncomfortable is something you should stop doing.
This video will make you uncomfortable. It should – because this is what women experience every single day. Together, we can change that. How? When blokes stop harassing women, and start respecting women. When blokes stop ignoring this kind of behaviour, and start calling it out. pic.twitter.com/z0DDhZrhRf
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) April 8, 2019
The man staring is doing it pretty blatantly – is he hoping to start a conversation? Flirting badly? Getting off on the fact that the woman he’s targeted is clearly uncomfortable?
Guess what? It doesn’t matter! She is clearly uncomfortable.
And even if the staring creep can’t spot it, the other bloke in the ad does – and when he decides to literally step in, it’s not a dramatic moment or an escalation.
He simply makes the unacceptable behaviour impossible by stepping into the creep’s eyeline, and also signals that it’s unacceptable by that little shake of his head.
That’s all it takes. The creep gets the message that he’s being a creep, and the woman gets relief from the creeping as well as the relief of not having to make a scene. And the non-creep knows he did the right thing.
Moments like that in your day are like a stone in your shoe: sure (as the helpful man’s inner monologue says) it’s not a huge deal, but you can’t ignore it, and it’s really uncomfortable.
So this reminds everyone that you can make someone feel unsafe and uncomfortable from across a train carriage – without putting your hands, mouth or crotch anywhere near them. Especially fro a government campaign, it’s exactly the kind of zero-tolerance, every-little-thing-matters attitude that makes everyone safer.