That’s straight out of The Gift of Fear. In fact, the opening chapter recounts a horrifying story about a woman returning to her apartment after grocery shopping. A man approaches her on the stairs, strikes up a conversation, accuses her of being rude when she declines his help in carrying the groceries, and once he gets in to her apartment, repeatedly rapes her.
Trust your instincts, and next time, don’t be afraid to tell the guy to bug off.
Even without such an extreme moral-to-the-story, in general people shouldn’t feel like they do things they don’t want to just to please others, whatever their gender.
Yes, just turn and walk away. If you want to be somewhat polite then you can say “I’m sorry I have to go. Have a nice day.” and then turn and walk. If this happens in your own neighborhood then consider that you might run into the guy again on the street, letting him rope you into a conversation means that he’ll remember you next time he sees you and may try to repeat the routine.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for chatting with people around the neighborhood, but there are plenty of chatty types out there to make small talk with besides pushy men trying to get numbers.
I knew an ugly, dirty, weaselly little guy who did this CONSTANTLY, day in and day out - but only to the 9s and 10s he saw (he is probably a 3) - and by god every once in awhile it worked. The guy has banged more hot chicks than most trust fund frat boys. I’m probably getting this saying wrong but it’s something like, if you throw enough shit at the wall, some of it is going to stick.
I definitely agree. It’s okay to hurt the feelings of pushy creeps.
Where I come from (Detroit), a guy would be an idiot to not realize that women get jumpy when a random strange guy approaches them. I’d be tempted to mace the dude if he didn’t want to take “NO. LEAVE ME ALONE.” for an answer or tried following me as I was walking away. Maybe that makes me a nasty bitch, but I’d rather be a nasty bitch than get mugged or raped.
Maybe we need a “The Game” esque pick up deflection books for women, as I also feel like I was socialized to not hurt people’s feelings. Every page can have the word “NO” in huge letters, with added profanity for spice.
I took his number to avoid an altercation, basically. I was having my groceries delivered and I needed to get home and he insisted on walking along side of me on my way to my apartment so I just wanted him to go away so he didn’t end up following me home. I still feel bad that I said something I didn’t mean because I really don’t do that ever but it seemed like the safest option at the time. And honestly, if he didn’t take no for an answer the first two times why would he have taken it the third time?
I was tempted to give him a call last night though. About 2 hours after I got home I came down with the stomach flu (courtesy of my boyfriend who had it on Saturday) and basically just slept on the bathroom floor. I half wanted to call him and see how long he would stay on the phone with me and if he would listen to me vomit every half hour just to get a date lol.
I’d have been tempted to call, just to see if it was really a personal phone number, or something else. 3A.M. sounds about right. But I’d have found a phone that couldn’t be traced back to me, because I sure wouldn’t want him to be picking my phone number off of caller ID.