People are Weird – also the ticket-fiasco

So, yesterday, I basically was busy for the whole day and effectively came home somewhat late (around 10 PM ish?). It was a long day as I finally fixed my sleep schedule and I consequently woke up in the morning (as opposed to falling asleep in the morning and waking up in the afternoon).

I did a short stream discussing GamesCom questions and things people wanted to talk about.

I then got ready for said event where I wanted to ask the questions, took the train, survived the heat, and when I was there, I wasn’t allowed entry with my “ticket” because of some simple miscommunication.

When I was invited to the IAB Press Reception, I thought that that would entail that the “ticket” is actually a ticket that allows me entrance. Well, no. I would have had to buy a ticket for 55€ – which I can’t do. I hence went ahead and left and returned very late to the main station where I’d wait for the bus home. Whatever.

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But there, at the main station, I had this incredibly weird interaction with people.

So, my bus was gonna take ten minutes to arrive, so I wanted to sit down on this bench. As per usual.

But when I sat down, there were these women on the other side of the otherwise empty bench who said “See? I told you he’d come over!”

Naturally, I asked if there is a problem. I mostly was kind of annoyed by the heat, the tardy trains, the whole ticket fiasco, and all of that. I would have let it slide otherwise and just not engaged with them… but they were talking about me, so I wanted to know if there was a problem with me sitting on the other side of this bench.

Anyway, one of these women was explaining how they thought I’d come over and sit very close next to her. That, however, is such a weird thing to say in my opinion.

Hence, I asked: “Why would I sit down right next to you when there is plenty of space on the other end of the bench?”

And then… she very confidently told me that she thought I’d get super close to her to sexually harass her or something. Her friend there agreed to that sentiment.

Now, obviously, that’s a valid concern. Sometimes you don’t feel safe.

But that leads to the question: Do I look like a molester? I shaved my beard off today. Would this have happened with the fully grown beard as well? Do my sandals give off the impression that I’m some sort of creep?

I didn’t ask them that. I simply didn’t say anything to that. One of them went on some quasi-racist rant about “people from outside of this city” apparently doing that really often… At that point, I put my headphones into my ears and just put my music on full blast.

I felt insulted, though. That’s such a rude and weird accusation to make, on top of it being baseless since she had her stuff on the seat next to her. I doubt I could sit on that. It would probably be quite uncomfortable with the keys and her purse and whatnot.

But people don’t think that far ahead, I guess. Typically, when I don’t want people to sit next to me, I put my bag there to stop people from sitting down. If the bench is full, I put it on my lap or I get up and walk away.

And like, I get that that’s a valid concern. Not the racist stuff – the stuff about sexual harassment. I get that it comes from a place of experience and hurt and fear… but even so, you don’t just say those things out loud in front of someone that you think might sexually harass you. That’s a weird thing to do.

There were times when I thought that I got followed by someone. There were also times that I thought that I was getting eyed by some sketchy-looking dudes… but I never thought about letting those people know that I feel threatened or something.

If you encounter three people in a dark alleyway, you don’t typically go up to them and say “Hey, you look like you’re gonna stab me!” – even if they ask if there’s a problem. You’ll just go away. Quickly. Because you don’t wanna get stabbed.

…and I know… I know… missed opportunity. I could have told these people that I’m not a molester or that I’ve never molested anyone and that I don’t intend to change that… like… at all… I could have said something rude as well but I didn’t want to go there. I had a few lines in my head that sounded quite funny… but they also were incredibly rude.

Anyway, people are weird. I felt quite insulted by that interaction and frankly, I just needed to vent about it in a post. Today, I’ll be at the GamesCom (this time for sure). I’ll probably write up a new review or a few interviews in the next few days. Look forward to that.

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well. If you find this post on a website other than Indiecator.org, please write an e-mail to me. Thank you!