I rarely like to get into contact with people. There are exceptions of course, friends and family, but with strangers I don’t appreciate them coming within my personal space bubble.
I don’t like it for many reasons. First of all, I like my personal bubble. Second, I think it’s rude. Third, it’s also a matter of safety.
For whatever reason the other day a man got into my personal bubble. The train wasn’t even that crowded, it was getting full, but it wasn’t packed. And either way he decided to move into my space where I had to move to accommodate him. Even then he still bumped into me.
And this really bothered me, if it was me, or even just, usually, another woman this wouldn’t have happened. I hate intruding into other’s personal space and always feel tremendously guilty about it and avoid it at all costs. As well, this is what I have encountered with women as well.
It’s not only on a train that I encounter this, but also on the street. When two people are walking towards each other, I always move, and I’ve found when I don’t, and a man is walking towards me, he will not move. It’s like I am expected to move, and if I don’t, then I get run into.
What is it about the gender differences that encourage women to shrink into spaces, to move away, and men to expand?
I’m not saying all people are like this, obviously there are exceptions, but this is just a general trend I’ve run into.
Why should I have to shrink away to nothing in order to live? Maybe that’s a very elitist thing to think, that I deserve space, but I think I shouldn’t have to monitor all the time the space I take up and then shrink, and then still get bumped into. That’s just the last straw.
I deserve to have the space I need to breathe, to live, to exist.