I look guys directly in the eye and nod hello and quickly look away. I feel as if I am saying "I acknowledge you are there. I am not ignoring you. We have had our interaction and now it's done." In all my years in NYC, I found it worked 9 out of 10 times.
Can't any one of your damn little Scooby club at least try to remember that I hate you all?
Spike ,'Get It Done'
What Happens in Natter 35 Stays in Natter 35
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Scrappy - May 23, 2005 7:36:17 am PDT #6216 of 10001
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Nutty - May 23, 2005 7:37:58 am PDT #6217 of 10001
"Mister Spock is on his fanny, sir. Reports heavy damage."
ita, I suspect there is not making eye contact and then there is not making eye contact. I do not make eye contact because other people are as insignificant gnats to me; but if my eye-contact avoidance were, in fact, fearful, then eye-contact making would be a step up.
Generally speaking, when "get outta my way" is your default demeanor, then eye-contact is not particularly at issue.
Jesse - May 23, 2005 7:39:25 am PDT #6218 of 10001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I feel like the eye-contact thing for the average woman is kind of like a bluff. You (ita) could actually beat the shit out of the guy, but I probably couldn't, which makes it more important for me to look as though I could. Not that I do it much, but that's because most creepy people on the street want to talk to you, not hurt you. And I REALLY don't want to talk to them.
§ ita § - May 23, 2005 7:40:51 am PDT #6219 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I look guys directly in the eye and nod hello and quickly look away.
I do the nod, sometimes smile, but really dislike the eye thing. They painted it like not looking was equivalent to flashing your panties.
I'm all about the "I know you're there. You cannot surprise me. But you also cannot engage me."
sarameg - May 23, 2005 7:42:48 am PDT #6220 of 10001
I look through/past people. I don't know what it looks like to the observer, though. I have some issues with making eye-contact generally (like talking to my dang friends!) so I'm probably not on the normal stretch on any such continuum.
Connie Neil - May 23, 2005 7:52:30 am PDT #6221 of 10001
brillig
I avoid eye contact with strangers because I learned, growing up back east, that it could be taken as a challenge/invitation. That many people around you, personal privacy was important. There's a difference between looking past someone while giving off "I have a purpose" vibes and walking around with your head down looking like a victim.
-t - May 23, 2005 7:56:46 am PDT #6222 of 10001
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration
I feel like making eye contact is more of an invitation than not making eye contact, so mostly I don't. I haven't been attacked yet, though that's bound to me more a matter of luck than anything else.
Jessica - May 23, 2005 7:58:55 am PDT #6223 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
They painted it like not looking was equivalent to flashing your panties.
I never make eye contact with anyone on the street. I don't want to communicate with them, I don't want them to communicate with me, end of story.
Glamcookie - May 23, 2005 7:59:03 am PDT #6224 of 10001
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister
Scathing anti-war testimony: [link]
EpicTangent - May 23, 2005 8:16:14 am PDT #6225 of 10001
Why isn't everyone pelting me with JOY, dammit? - Zenkitty