I’m not sure if I’m the only one experiencing this particular annoyance but over the past few years I’ve noticed I’ve been getting stared at quite a lot in public. Maybe it’s the blue hair and piercings or perhaps it’s just the price to pay for being blessed with phenomenal genetics, but either way I’m sick of it. I wish I could say this behavior was limited to small children who don’t know any better but it seems that at least a few times a week I notice a fully grown adult eyeing me like I’m some sideshow attraction.
When I first observed people’s intrusive gazes I became instantly uncomfortable. I would look at the ground, wishing it would swallow me up, as if this would somehow shield me. However, as time went on I realized that I’m not the one in the wrong here. I’m not standing on tables, shouting or otherwise causing a spectacle — I’m simply trying to exist in a public space and go about my daily business. After finally recognizing that being shy was not going to change these strangers’ boorish ways I started to get aggressive (or at the very least, passive-aggressive).
As soon as I notice someone gawking at me, and trust me when I say it’s always more than a passing glance, I give them a little taste of their own medicine. First, I make sure to establish eye contact with them. Typically I’ll don a deadpan expression, but sometimes when I’m feeling sassy I’ll raise an eyebrow as if to say, “Got a problem?” Then I maintain my unfaltering stare until they get uncomfortable (and hopefully ashamed) and finally look away. Usually the offender will get the picture within a few brief moments of this treatment but you’d be surprised at the amount of people who have awkwardly held my gaze for 30 agonizing seconds, or longer.
I remember as a child that occasionally someone would catch my eye and I would find myself watching them intently. It was typically someone who was “different” than most passerby — someone physically disabled or perhaps a homeless woman muttering to herself. But like anyone with decent parenting skills my mother taught me that this was unacceptable behavior. I could be wrong about this, but I feel like most people received the “don’t stare” lecture in their childhood.
Thankfully it appears that most people have enough sense not to gawk at the differently-abled in public but somehow they didn’t get the memo that intently eyeing strangers is rude no matter the circumstances. The fact that I choose to stylistically express myself in a non-conventional manner is no excuse to gape at me as if I were a caged zoo animal. If I could leave you all with one lesson learned, it would be this: people are people, regardless of our differences, and nobody likes being ogled while doing their grocery shopping.
