How many times, as a child, did you hear, “It’s not polite to stare?” We know that the steady gaze of another can be discomfiting. What does that gaze mean? Does that person mean harm or admiration?
I think that for some, perhaps many women, a stare, especially when coupled with a whistle or a suggestive comment, is an aggressive and threatening thing. Could this guy be over the edge? Will he follow me? And not in a good way?
In my mind, this feeling probably spills over into ordinary stares. The woman will walk by and say, “Perv!” I guess some or most women don’t want to be thought of as sex objects, and perhaps they assume that’s what is happening when a guy stares.
Others, perhaps more confident, might revel in the attention. It might make them feel good that men like the way they look.
I am not sure of what women stare at. Do they stare at men that look attractive to them? If I catch someone staring, which hardly ever happens, I don’t know what it means, because it almost never happens. I often wonder in my head if the woman likes me for some reason. Of course, it could easily be that they know me and I’ve forgotten them or they know me from a presentation I’ve given and I never actually met them.
I’ve always wanted a certain kind of staring. It’s the positive kind, like when I perform, and everyone loves what I’m doing. Those stares give me energy and confidence. That allows me to try stuff I’ve never done before. It also allows me to set up a kind of feedback loop, where I take their energy, and reformulate it, and send it back to them in a focused and cohesive way.
That’s about loving attention, and feeling good about myself. At any rate, it’s the only way I know to make myself feel okay. Feedback is key, and those stares are good. Mostly, though, I have no idea how to interpret any look that a random stranger might give me. It would be nice if it happened more often.