Woman, Her Feet, And Her Bag Become A Reason For A Man To Invade Her Personal Space
Being a woman is scary. Being alone and a woman is even scarier.
Alone in the literal sense anyway, because we all need our ‘me time’ occasionally, you know? Anyway…
What would you do if you entered an almost empty train early in the morning?
I, for one, would rejoice. Fewer people would mean it’s not cramped and you just enjoy your train ride unbothered and in peace.
Not for this Redditor though.
AITA for refusing to sit next to this man?
We have an almost empty train in this scenario, right? So why the heck should sitting next to someone be a concern here?
Well, OP wrote that she sat in a four-seater and spread out her stuff in those four seats.
“[I] put my jacket on the seat across from me and put my feet on it so that the seat wouldn’t get touched by my socks.”
Pause. Kinda judging OP here because why would you put your unshod feet up in public? At least she did say that she had been wearing her socks for less than an hour then and her shoes were also clean. But still…we can only hope her feet don’t stink.
So she already claimed her place on the train, right? But then a guy entered the carriage and immediately went straight to OP and instructed her to move her bag.
I’m here thinking that the guy must just be annoyed that OP has her things spread out in a four-seater, but why is he being so hostile about it though?
OP was confused and asked the man if he really wanted that particular seat, and he said he did.
“He plopped down next to me, and I proceeded to pack up my laptop, drink, and jacket, put on my shoes, and moved to a different four-seater. I spread out again.”
The man followed her and asked her to move her bag again. OP confronted the man and told him why would he want to switch seats again when she already vacated her previous seat just for him.
“He scoffed and explained that it was not about the specific seat but about ‘entitled people who think their bags deserve a seat.’”
I’m honestly shocked right now. I’m reading along the story as I write, and I can’t believe I’m kinda right about the reason why the man is pestering OP.
When OP stayed in her spot, the man moved as if he was going to grab OP’s bag, and that’s when OP raised her voice and stopped the stranger. The man just started grumbling about entitlement again and called OP an a-hole just before moving back to his original (stolen?) seat.
“To be clear, when a train fills up, I of course gather my stuff and vacate seats around me so that others can sit. But I don’t see why I should let some rando boss me around and invade my personal space for no reason.”
In an update, it seems that I wasn’t the only one that questioned OP and her putting her feet up in public. She said, “I am having a good laugh about all the people commenting on me putting very clean socks on my reasonably clean jacket, while, of course, instead there must be only butts on seats, and as we all know, butts are so much more hygienic than feet!”
She acknowledges that it may be considered bad manners in some cultures, but that’s not the case where she lives. Hey, at least she’s finding all the negative comments hilarious!
OP also thanked the people who expressed their concern about how scary the situation was, but she denied that it was scary at all.
“My spidey senses were not tingling, at all. My impression of the dude was one of self-righteousness and some tinge of entitlement, maybe a bit of creepiness, but no hints of danger of physical violence.”
Kudos to her! Even if the situation wasn’t scary, it was still brave of her for standing her ground, and she did not get intimidated by the guy’s false bravado.
NTA, Redditors said.
Read the original post below!
AITA for refusing to sit next to this man?
by u/skanus_cepelinai in AmItheAsshole
