# It's confirmed, creepsters have some sort of "sixth sense" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 6, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000 "2012-02-06T19:28:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/21 "2012-02-07T02:17:34Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > I don’t think it’s a sixth sense, though. I hate it when scientific studies have ambiguous results. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/22 "2012-02-07T03:11:26Z")
> [@Diamonds02](#): > > However, it’s the creepy men who know that I’m a woman, right away … They all instantly know/knew that I was a female. I can’t think of any explanation for this. But I am finding myself strangely attracted to you. Are you doing anything later? Would you like to see my etchings? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/23 "2012-02-07T13:00:21Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I’m really surprised that you’ve somehow managed to convince yourself that most people aren’t clued into the fact that you are woman. I (and many people dealing with the public) will refer to someone by what they want to represent as. It doesn’t mean that I (or most people for that matter) don’t know you’re packing a vagina. > > Humans are extremely well attuned to male vs female physical traits. No matter how androgynously she dresses a woman, if they are up close and personal, is generally pretty damned easy to detect if she’s fronting as man. At a distance you might have more of a shot. > > The upshot is that people are being deferential to your representational desires. You are not fooling nearly as many people as you think. This. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/24 "2012-02-07T13:05:14Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > So, come on. Post a video of how you dress and act while you are trying to be androgynous, and then we can tell you everything… > > In other words, without more information, there are too many variables for why this is happening, and we can’t help. My best advice is to try what I do. I don’t know if it will work for anyone else, but all I do is look angry when I want to be left alone, and it always works. It appears that my default neutral expression is interpreted as a scowl by many people. But, as well as being an old married man, I cannot recall the last time I was at a casino or bar at 4 am, so my experience is irrelevant to the OP’s situation. ---
**Author:** ![Ura-Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/51bf81/32.png) [@Ura-Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ura-Maru)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/25 "2012-02-07T18:26:56Z")
So, you’re dressing in boys clothes. That’s cute in and of itself. And then deliberately imitating a male swagger? You do realize that’s adorable and sexy right? You . . . don’t realize that’s adorable and sexy? Ah, I don’t really know how to phrase this, but . . . are you sure you’re a lesbian? (Joke! Joke!) Seriously, though, what you’re describing isn’t de-sexualizing your appearance, its putting on a cute butch persona. You know who that’s going to attract? Given a reasonable margin of error, **everybody.** That’s like a dude trying to discourage female attention by wearing a tux. You may be fooling people who aren’t paying attention or don’t care, but creepsters (as well as non-creepsters who like women) are probably both, by definition. – If you were looking to avoid FEMALE attention, this would be easier to solve. You’d just need a Dungeon Master’s Guide and an Iron Man t-shirt. But that’s a problem that no one has. Ever ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/26 "2012-02-07T18:30:22Z")
> [@Ura-Maru](#): > > If you were looking to avoid FEMALE attention, this would be easier to solve. You’d just need a Dungeon Master’s Guide and an Iron Man t-shirt. > > But that’s a problem that no one has. Ever But how else is she going to fool drunk straight women into making out with her in dark bars at 4am? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/27 "2012-02-07T23:16:00Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > But how else is she going to fool drunk straight women into making out with her in dark bars at 4am? I’ve never met anyone like him. He seemed to know what I needed intuitively. It’s like he was reading my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/28 "2012-02-08T19:25:18Z")
Pretending you’re a guy (if you’re a thin, good-looking girl) is not a good way to ward off all male attention. You might get extra unwanted attention from people who think you’re transexual or cross-dressing. Dress like a frumpy chick. Out of style clothing, throw a few curlers in your hair, don’t wear makeup. Cut your hair super-short or wear it in an unflattering ponytail. You would probably do better coming off as a frumpy, disinterested, unattractive chick than a trans person (unattractive chicks rarely get hit on). ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/29 "2012-02-08T19:30:00Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > You would probably do better coming off as a frumpy, disinterested, unattractive chick than a trans person (unattractive chicks rarely get hit on). Depends. Some people like non-glamorous women. I’m tempted to say that it’s more important to send the right ‘go-away’ signals, but that leads in a direction I really don’t want to go in: that it’s always the recipient’s responsibility to ward off unwanted attention, and never the other person’s responsibility to _not give it_… ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/30 "2012-02-08T23:29:13Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m tempted to say that it’s more important to send the right ‘go-away’ signals, but that leads in a direction I really don’t want to go in: that it’s always the recipient’s responsibility to ward off unwanted attention, and never the other person’s responsibility to _not give it_… Not to mention that this requires the other person to actually be listening to signals–the kind of guy who accosts random women at 3AM is laser-focused on “that’s a female” and is paying no attention to other signals short of actual physical assault. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/31 "2012-02-09T00:09:04Z")
I’m a guy and male body odor and female body odor is in general very, very different. Most women even at their grossest and funkiest still have a ummm rounder odor to them, men have a much sharper spikier odor(like one or two notes versus the female wall of sound(smell). ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/32 "2012-02-09T00:50:11Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > A human vagina, even a recently scrubbed one, has a scent to it that could be identified by any guy, blindfolded, who has ever had access to one and who has a functioning olphactory system. Now granted, you’d need to be pretty close to a freshly scrubbed one to catch the scent on a conscious level and think, “Hey! Pussy!” But a couple hours after a shower I’d be willing to bet it’s detectable on a subliminal level that would escape measurement in a laboratory setting. So Mr. Creep might key in on a particlar, otherwise ambiguous target, in response to a subtle move, facial/hip structure, or scent as weak as “Hm…pussy?” that even he is not fully aware of, and decide the situation warrants further investigation. Eliciting a single vocal response from the target would probably be enough to resolve the doubt. Either the pitch or tone of the voice would be feminine, or the response itself would not be a masculine one. You spelled [olfactory](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/olfactory) wrong. BTW, sniffing people is creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/33 "2012-02-09T15:52:40Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > BTW, sniffing people is creepy. Her armpits were asking for it, officer! > [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m tempted to say that it’s more important to send the right ‘go-away’ signals, but that leads in a direction I really don’t want to go in: that it’s always the recipient’s responsibility to ward off unwanted attention, and never the other person’s responsibility to _not give it_… Yeah the onus should be on the creepers to refrain from being creepy. But we live in the real world. Plus, as I recall, the OP is quite young and may not have developed the ability to be standoffish. I call it the “heinous bitch” aura, and have used it to great effect when I was attractive and nubile (it’s been a while, but yeah). And then there’s the subset of creepy rapists who enjoy that sort of resistance… nothing you can do about that. Ideally the OP would wear what makes her feel good about herself, and cultivate the ability to tell creepy pricks to fuck off. But, outside of claimed internet-badassery, that’s easier said than done. Maybe a can of Mace would help imbue confidence? ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2012, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000/34 "2012-02-09T19:03:03Z")
My guess is that there is something going on with your body language. I know with me, my body language affected how people interacted with me (not being hit on at 4am by creepy guys, granted, but in other ways). You can dress like a dude, but if you still walk, stand, sit, etc like a woman it really doesn’t matter. A lot of people, when they feel scared or threatened, give off nonverbal cues to other people that scream, “I’m scared/nervous/insecure/etc”. People, particularly creepy people, will zero in on this. All but the most clueless creepy guys will avoid hitting on a woman they know can kick their ass. Chances are, there are things about you people see as appealing- your body shape, your eyes/facial features, the sound of your voice, the way you walk or scratch your butt or whatever. You’re trying to mask it, but it sounds like you are doing everything other than the stuff that is getting people’s attention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-confirmed-creepsters-have-some-sort-of-sixth-sense/612000.md?page=1)