Women share their best tactics for scaring away 'creepy' men in public

Wearing a cape, shrieking like a velociraptor and talking about astrology are amongst the strategies women employ to ward off creepy men in public.

As we all know, the sad reality is that women are harassed in the street, on public transport, online, at home, at the gym… basically everywhere you can imagine.

So it’s no surprise women have developed their own coping strategies for what to do when approached by an unsavoury character.

Taking to Reddit, some women shared light-hearted tips, whereas others shared serious tactics.

Several Redditor suggested playing them at their own game and being creepy back.

One woman wrote that once, a colleague told her to smile more. She was eating yoghurt at the time, so she smiled and “slowly squished it” through her teeth. “He hasn’t talked to me since,” she added.

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Or, take the reins of the conversation and ask for their big three zodiac signs.

“Talk to them about astrology lmao,” another wrote. “Men walk away as fast I would walk away if some dude started talking about crypto.”

Another woman said she has more confidence now that she’s older, and wears a cloak almost everywhere she goes. Despite her small stature, she walks like she’s “on a mission to kill someone”, and has had people remark that she is intimidating. “Being old and weird is great,” she said.

Some women say they try to get other strangers’ attention if they are being made uncomfortable.

One woman wrote: “Yell loudly ‘Why are you following me?! I don’t know you!’ It makes a scene and everyone stares. They get uncomfortable and leave.”

Aggressively shouting into a phone is another’s tactic, while a different woman just says “no thank you” brightly every time she receives an unwanted advance in public.

Verbalising in a more cryptic way appears to work, too.

“I usually look them dead in the eye and start chanting under my breath, works wonders,” one quipped.

“I usually just start barking,” another snarled.

But your imagination is the limit when it comes to which animal noises you try.

Another simply suggested: “Velociraptor screech.”

We’ve found dolphin noises are quite effective, too.

You could also compare yourself to an animal - real or imaginary - as one Redditor suggests.

She said: “On the whole, my purple/pink hair has been a general deterrent because no one wants, as my husband calls it ‘someone going through a midlife crisis’. But if I am approached with unwelcome attention, I will say: ‘have you ever f***ed a unicorn?’ And then I neigh loudly.”

If that doesn’t work, perhaps try something a bit gross.

One woman suggested: “Eating a booger. After locking eye contact.”

“Coughing loudly tends to keep them at a distance these days,” one Covid-aware Redditor remarked.

Here's hoping we can one day live in a society where we no longer have to employ such strategies...

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