It's been said that men are afraid women will laugh at them and that women are afraid that men will kill them. That should tell you a lot about the power imbalance between men and women and how frightened women can get doing things men might take for granted, like simply saying "no."
After Redditor AllWhammyNoMorals asked the online community, "Women of Reddit, what was your worst run-in with a creep?" women shared their stories.
"When I was 12..."
When I was 12 and just starting to develop, a guy told me 'your titties are coming along nicely.' I was so freaked out!
Sadly, this is common and by the time they're adults, many women report experiences with sexual harrassment that go back years.
"She handed us our bags..."
My friend and I were 16 and wandering around at a Sephora in the mall, just swatching eyeshadow and highlighter on our wrists. He was the only guy in the store, and I only vaguely noticed him in the same aisle as us just before we paid. It didn't ring any alarm bells for me whatsoever, because why should it? We picked up our highlighter and went to pay, the girl at the register rung up our items, leaned over, and said quietly, "That guy followed you two into the store and has been watching you in each aisle. I'm going to give you your bags and go ask him if he needs any help, you two need to get as far away as possible. If you see him follow you outside of this store, go talk to security." She handed us our bags, gestured at the door, and walked up to him as we ran out.
I hope she gets all the good things in this life.
"There was a guy in my hometown..."
There was a guy in my hometown that would wait outside the high school, with the door to his corvette open, hoping a girl would get in. I lived in the middle of nowhere. To get to my house I had to walk over a mile, on a one-lane dirt road, winding through a forest. One day as the school bus was approaching my laneway to drop me off, the corvette guy was waiting in my laneway, with his door open. The bus driver wouldn't let me off the bus; he continued to the next drop and told me to go to that house and call my parents to pick me up. (This was in the days before cell phones existed.)
"I'm a bartender..."
I, unfortunately, have a few stories but this is one that tops the list. I'm a bartender and one night I was serving three men who work at an Italian restaurant nearby. I was offered a job, which I politely declined. They were my last patrons. I closed out their tab, finished my side work, and had a busboy walk me to my car. As the busboy left in his own car, this black Porsche SUV blocks me in my spot. The window is rolled down and I realize it's the owner of the Italian restaurant. He asks if I want to go home with him. I decline.
He asks if the busboy was my boyfriend and I lied and said yes. He scoffed and sped off. I hurry and leave to head home. As I pull into my parking spot at my house, I see the same SUV drive by! I woke up my neighbor who was a military guy, and he said he'd keep an eye out. That night I found the guy's name online, his Facebook profile, his business profile, his wife's profile, and his phone number. I took screenshots and sent them all to him telling him not to harass me or I'll retaliate. I never heard from him again. Lesson learned: always pay attention to your surroundings while driving home.
"In fifth grade..."
In fifth grade, after ballet practice, I was only wearing shorts and a jacket over my dance clothes (leotard and tights), and standing in a chipotle line. Some old dude was behind me and asking me about my phone. According to my mother, he was looking at my body, scanning it up and down. Even before I found that out he gave me the creeps. When we left, he rushed to pick up his order and ran out the door after us and followed us home. He stopped following at the last turn. I had trouble sleeping.
"Over the next couple of years..."
The most memorable was when I was sitting in my parents' front garden, on the swing, reading. The way everything is laid out with the trees and whatnot, you can barely see the swing/deck/BBQ area from any perspective that's not from the front door. Very private spot.
Anyway, I was just sitting there reading when I hear someone walking up. Assume it's a family member because how would it not be? Someone plops down on the swing next to me, throws an arm around me and it's just ... some guy. Says some stuff, tries to move closer, and proceeds to attempt to keep me from leaving when I get up.
I got of there, practically sprint back to the house, and tell my dad what just happened and that there's some a-hole in our garden being completely gross at me. He just laughs and says, "Oh, that's just [new across the street neighbor]. Be nice."
The f***?
Over the next couple years, he would go on to make me and my older, only occasionally visiting, sisters super uncomfortable any chance he got. Long stories. And his poor, but large and angry dog was always loose in the neighborhood and murdering other people's pets.
"He revved his engine..."
Was walking down the sidewalk and a guy whistled at me from his car, I ignored him and kept walking. He revved his engine loudly and ran his car up on the sidewalk, missing me by a couple of feet. I was 12.
A friend of mine had a similar experience. She was barely fourteen at the time and says she has been scared walking down that street since.
"A guy who stays regularly..."
A guy who stays regularly at the hotel I work in; all of the female staff knows to avoid getting caught alone with him.
He has a habit of asking us if we know of any "adult fun" nearby. If you just act like you don't know what he's talking about he'll say he wants to go to brothels and have a good time without his wife. He'll then progress to offering you various amounts of money for the night and asking you what you like in bed and what you'd be willing to do. He developed such an obsession with one of our staff before she left that security would walk around with her when he stayed because he'd followed her out to her car at one point making suggestive comments.
Got stuck alone with him once as I was behind the counter and he stood blocking the only way out from behind it. He started the usual chat and I told him I wasn't interested. He then moved on to asking me what time I finished, if I lived nearby if I walked home alone. My male coworker turned up then but he creeped on me from a distance the rest of the day and watched me leave. I have no doubt he will assault someone one day, hotel won't ban him because he regularly spends money.
"I was 21..."
I was 21 in a strange city and got separated from my friend at a bar. I was drunk and wanted to go back to the hotel so as I'm leaving, this guy who had been sitting near me all night followed and got IN MY CAB with me and closed the door.
Again, I was very drunk so had to think quickly and stay as calm as possible. He tried to talk to me and I just nodded and made small talk (I didn't know if rejection would turn him violent so I played along the best I could) after telling the driver where to take me.
The whole time this guy is moving closer and touching me, so as soon as the car stopped I got out, RAN into the hotel lobby where I knew this man would be following me, and screamed to the hotel security and desk employees, "I DO NOT KNOW THIS MAN. HE IS FOLLOWING ME," and they took it from there.
"I told him..."
Weird Larry lived in my dorm. He unsuccessfully hit on all the girls, which is why he was Weird Larry. It totally ruined his self-esteem.
One night, Larry just showed up and invited himself into my room. I was not fully clothed. He took this as an invitation and climbed up into my bunk bed. I asked him to get down, and he asked me to come up there with him so we could have sex.
When I refused, he took some quarters out of his pocket, put them on my nightstand, and said, "What if I paid you? You could do your laundry!"
I told him that wasn't enough change to do a full load of laundry, and he started crying and getting snot all over my pillow.
I had to go wake up the RD (person in charge of the dorm) and have him escorted out. Then he wouldn't stop sending me messages. I saved the messages and used them to file a restraining order. A few other girls wanted in on it, so Weird Larry was evicted from his own dormitory and had to drop out of school.
Here's a sobering fact:
In 2018, an online survey conducted by a nonprofit called Stop Street Harassment found that 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime. That's a much higher number than previous polls, so that should give you an idea of how widespread the issue is.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments below.
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It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
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So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
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What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
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The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
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