Normalize Screaming Like A Pterodactyl When Men Act Like Disgusting Creepers

Out of all the TikTok videos I’ve watched since downloading the app last summer, this one is probably my favorite:

I never knew that watching creepy men get screamed at by fierce women could be a hobby, but here we are! I stan this woman and any person who screams like a pterodactyl at a creepy man. Men have been on their creepy bullshit for too long. It’s time to act like dinosaurs! *blows a kazoo*

TikToker @sarahbeallpaints from the clip above agrees. “When I get on Facebook and I see women that are like, ‘Don’t go to the Shawnee Walmart, I saw— somebody was following me around five, six aisles, and they followed me all the way to my car and I had to run for it…”

She interrupts here to say, “What?! First of all, don’t ever let him be alone with you walking to your car. Don’t let it get that far.”

Can I get an amen.

She goes on to say, “Once he’s in that third of fourth aisle following you around, or he’s staring at you, or he just comes and talks to you — this is what you’re gonna do: You’re gonna remind yourself that you are not embarrassing yourself. You’re embarrassing him.”

It is so socially ingrained in us to do whatever it takes to avoid looking “crazy” that we sacrifice our own comfort in order not to make a scene. It’s become normal to put social decorum ahead of our physical safety. This norm needs to be wrapped in a garbage bag, tied to a cement block, and tossed in the Hudson River.

“Become a problem,” @sarahbeallpaints says. “Become a big problem. Look at him in his eyes and as loud as you can, ‘GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! GO!’” She’s literally shaking as she says the word “go.” As she should be. Let the rage fly.

“Draw attention to yourself,” @sarahbeallpaints says. “Draw attention to him. He’s not gonna snatch somebody that looks like they are this much of an issue. So please don’t feel embarrassed. Embarrass them.”

Yes. Especially if you’re in a public place with people around, the best thing you can do to keep yourself safe and put gross men on blast is to draw as much attention as possible to the situation. These slimebags want an easy target. They don’t want to deal with an unhinged person who might poke their eyes out and tear off their balls. Make them think you just might be that person.

Women have been asking nicely for too long for men to respect our personal space and to respect our nos. For centuries, nay, millennia, we’ve fake-smiled and offered awkward chuckles in hopes that gross men would take a fucking hint and back off with their unwanted advances. More recently, we started adding a gentle “No thank you, not interested” or “Um, actually, I have a boyfriend” as a way to exit an uncomfortable situation without triggering an angry response.

We’ve been nice because we’ve feared for our physical safety. It can be dangerous to bruise a man’s ego. We’ve all been called “bitch” or “cunt” for not responding with the expected level of gratitude or enthusiasm after being catcalled or fielding an unwelcome overture. Many of us have also experienced violence.

And even though we’ve been asking nicely for hundreds of years for men to stop doing this shit, men, as a social group, are still basically trash. There are some awesome ones *waves at brother-in-law* out there, but as a rule, women are still afraid to “be mean” to a man who is behaving inappropriately toward them.

TikToker @spritual_af has published a fantastic series of videos like the one above explaining why she’s “not nice.” In the video above, she relays a story of how she was walking alone in a tunnel after work one night and a man rushed up behind her, speeding up when she sped up. She turned around and screamed at him. He was apparently harmless, not realizing that what he was doing could be perceived as intimidating, and he apologized, but this interaction is telling.

It’s not only the legitimately creepy men who are problematic. It’s also the oblivious ones.

Women are walking around traumatized. Our fear is built into our existence, normalized with words like “awareness” and “precaution” and “vigilance” and a litany of rules about where and when it is and is not safe to walk alone. It’s so second nature to us that sometimes we forget it’s there or forget it’s not okay and shouldn’t be normal.

And many men, like the one in the story from TikToker @spritual_af, are oblivious to the vigilance women maintain. I’m sorry, but these guys don’t deserve our kindness either. If he’s not actively calling out the shit behavior of other men, he’s also part of the problem. If he’s not aware of and empathetic about the vigilance women maintain, he’s part of the problem. Men need to hold each other accountable, but they also need to develop awareness about these issues and self-awareness regarding how their behaviors are perceived.

TikToker j_rodriquezxo went viral when she caught a man sneaking a picture of her at the gym. She screamed at him until he deleted the picture, so everyone in the gym could hear, and she kept screaming at him until he deleted the picture from his deleted folder. I want to give this fierce woman a high five.

TikToker @lilbluzipoo went viral for screaming at a man on the subway when he was harassing another woman who was clearly uninterested in his advances. Yas, girl.

Until men start holding themselves and each other accountable, and until women feel safe, it’s time we embrace being unhinged. It’s time to normalize screeching like a pterodactyl at men who don’t respect a woman’s boundaries and personal space.

Maybe if enough of us stop being nice and start acting like pissed off dinosaurs, creepy men will pause for a beat and ask themselves if today is really the day they want to be creepy.

Women are rightly unhinged, men. Ya might wanna back the fuck up.

https://www.tiktok.com/@foster_mom/video/6912584544021531910