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Creepspotting
Useful tools for navigating life.
Have you ever noticed the difference between someone who warns you about the world by telling you to change your behavior, and someone who gives you tools to navigate the world?
Yesterday I gave a free last-minute self defense workshop, and the subject of creeps came up. You know the kind — the office creep, the one creep in a group of friends, the creep at the local coffee shop. We were talking about how creeps are often a creep only to one person, their creepy behavior covert so only their target sees it and no one else believes it. And we were talking about creeps often find their targets by testing boundaries, first with probing questions, then covert touching or standing to too close, and of course finally by escalating hijinx in creepiness, to see how far they can go before their target cries wolf. I strongly suspect that the real thrill for creeps is not so much what they do, but how much they can get away with.
I found myself thinking of this conversation again this morning and how often I have been told by people throughout my life, “there’s a lotta creeps out there, you gotta watch yourself” or, more to the point, “you gotta watch what you wear/say/do” so you don’t become a target. Change your behavior, your look, your clothes, your speech, who you are, so the creeps don’t find you. Hide yourself, and you’ll stay safe.
