Why have we been raised to think that strangers always mean us harm and (as women) that strange men only want to have sex with us? Why have we been raised to think that the best way to get through life is to eliminate as much human interaction as possible?
This has been bothering me for a while. I notice that people on the street don't even look at each other. People in airplanes and airports always sit with at least one space between them, and only take the middle seat when there are no more aisle and window seats left and they are forced to. There's self-checkout and self-bank telling and all that stuff so that we don't have to interact with the bank tellers or cashiers. We can just swipe our cards and be on our way. Online shopping, video games (particularly world of warcraft), things like that where people can feel like they're interacting with others without actually having to. Strangers look at you like you're crazy when you say anything to them on the street.
I even find myself falling into this without thinking. I'm at work and I see the group of heating installer guys sitting and eating lunch and looking at me and my first thought is automatically "ugh, pigs." I see them walking around the house and every time one looks at me I'm like, ew. My first instinct is to ignore them completely or give them the little tight smile that says "Don't talk to me." Then, one of the guys starts talking to me. I think, Why is he talking to me? He asks me about college, what i'm doing, what i'm studying, all this normal stuff, talking about how he's in night school and wants to finish college and suddenly I think, Jeez Mollie stop being so fucking uptight. He's just some 30 year old guy who works with the heating installer company and goes to adult college. When did I start thinking this way, that every stranger who approaches you is some kind of creep or someone trying to hit on you or wants something from you? Sometimes people really only just want to chat.
Not to naively say that everyone just wants to chat; sure there are a lot of bad people, but I think we forget that there are also just as many people who are completely harmless.
...or maybe i'm procrastinating.
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