Creepiness, the state of being creepy, is a concept that ties closely into the reality of women's experience, as a gender, with Schrödinger's Rapist. It is used to describe the experienced likelihood of a person being a potential or intending rapist or harasser.
What specifically counts as creepy is not easy to define. Two important criteria are
- subtleness (because if it isn't subtle, it's outright harassment, not merely creepy)
- and context.
Creepiness is largely measured by its effect on the recipient. Behavior that causes the recipient to become "creeped out" and uncomfortable is, by definition, creepy. Knowingly continuing the behavior after becoming aware of the recipient's discomfort is harassment.
Examples of creepy behaviour
Due to differences in personal schemas and experiences, what constitutes creepy behaviour varies vastly between individuals. This list attempts to be short and concise.
- clues that a person may not respect personal space, such as:
- continued "accidental" or blatant uninvited touches or attempts of such, of the person, their things, or their space
- following in any form, too many "random" meet-ups
- clues that a person may have a problematic understanding of consent,
- clues that a person may hold sexist beliefs and views, such as:
- habitual use of sexist slurs
- explicit sexist speech
- tendency to super ironic sexism or "harmless sexist jokes"
- clues that a person may be trying Pick-up Artist techniques
- clues that a person may employ emotional manipulation
- clues that a person may otherwise have little empathy and respect towards a person who is female
- clues that a person may be presenting themselves insincerely.
