Do people in your country stare at your on the street?

6 comments

1. I think Danes (and our neighbours, for that matter) stare quite a bit. Myself included. Most of the time, when we stare, we aren’t actually looking _at_ you, but more often, it’s just a question of eyes wandering about, and humans generally being pleasant and interesting to look at, so without second thought, eyes rest on other humans. A courteous smile, perhaps a greeting, if our eyes meet, and we move on.

   That said, there are also instances of staring at other people; often if people wear clothes which, intentionally or not, draw attention to them. This might be clothing unfit for the season, or it might be elaborate and beautiful outfits, planned out in advance, staring doesn’t really discriminate like that. But be aware, Danes judge, and we gossip, and we will talk about your outfit to our friends. Especially if we’re out looking at people. Which is a real thing Danes do. Just sit by the side of the street, talking about stuff, and looking at people passing by, commenting on those that deserve a comment, but other than that, for 99% of the time, sticking to the main conversation.

2. UK

   They will if you are making noise or acting erratically

   We teach children that “it’s rude to stare” and so just walking around, or being different in any way related to appearance or clothes *shouldn’t* get you stared at – but you may occasionally get a kid do it before their parents try to stop them. Older people can also be a bit more judgemental but they’re easily ignored – their ideas of social etiquette are often slightly outdated so some of them seem to judge weird things as being worthy of a glare

   When passing someone while walking it would depend where in the country you are as to what you’re supposed to do. Some places it’s a head nod (down if they are a stranger, up if you are friends and want to talk) to acknowledge that they are there and then just carrying on looking where you’re going, in other places you might say “good morning” or “good afternoon” as you pass. People doing the same activity will sometimes have a short conversation, so dog walkers or bikers come to mind

3. Few do (and I just don’t notice anymore or it’s less and less and it’s mostly in places where we wait like stops or checkouts, not while passing by) but I eventually realize that most of those who do don’t actually look at you even if they look your direction or “at you” and they don’t care. Only very few really stare to judge. Which gave me confidence to start to take out bright lipsticks, hats, short skirts and sleeves despite having a lot of more or less healed scars from compulsive skin picking. The realization that people mostly really don’t look AT you and don’t care was really freeing. They may gossip later, but who cares, I don’t know them.

   And then there are men who just can’t not be obvious why they stare and that’s always gonna be uncomfortable of course.

4. Not really. I live in a city of 60.000 people and from what I’ve seen, most people try to avoid looking at the other person entirely. If someone stared at another person, that would be very suspicious… are you trying to see if I have anything you could steal? Are you ogling me?

5. If you’re noticing them staring at you then you must be looking at them as well?

   I, personally,tend to keep my eyes on the pavement,not at eye level, so maybe people are staring at me and I don’t notice! (France btw)

6. I’m also from Romania, Bucharest to be more specific, and I rarely notice people looking at me, but when they do, it’s usually another woman scanning me from head to toes, spending more time looking at my feet 😆 it’s rarely a man and those don’t scan, but stare at something specific (again, usually my feet, one of them once almost broke his neck staring at them while walking by me 🤪). But, again, extremely rarely.