Why I Hate It When Men Approach Me on the Street

They make me feel uncomfortable.

Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, my best friend invited me to her house. She lives three hours away, and after much thought, I decided to take public transportation instead of driving there to spend those hours reading a book I wanted to finish.

The bus was relatively empty. It was a weekday, and not many people travel at 8:00 AM in that state.

However, a man in his 38s decided to sit next to me.

My first thought was that he decided to sit next to me because I was a pretty girl in a dress. But I tried not to be so self-centered and decided to believe that he simply decided to sit in the first empty seat he found, even though the rest of the bus was available.

“It was my fault for picking a seat in the front. Maybe if I had chosen one of the seats further back, he would have had more options before seeing me,” I assumed, but I told myself that as long as he stayed in his space and was quiet, so I could read in peace, there wouldn’t be a problem.

But that didn’t happen.

When a man sees a woman alone on the street, he always feels the need to talk to her.