All men should be aware of this

What a horrible thread. The number of people (presumably mainly women, but who knows) picking apart the OP to find fault in the detail or criticising her for daring to feel vulnerable is shocking.

Male violence against women, including sexually motivated violence, is a commonplace reality supported by hard statistical evidence. Women have good reason to feel threatened, especially in isolated situations. Men should be more aware and more empathetic. Not being predisposed to violence against women is not good enough. Being aware that just your presence is enough to cause fear, and doing your reasonable best to mitigate that is not a big ask.

What a horrible thread. The number of people (presumably mainly women, but who knows) picking apart the OP to find fault in the detail or criticising her for daring to feel vulnerable is shocking.

Male violence against women, including sexually motivated violence, is a commonplace reality supported by hard statistical evidence. Women have good reason to feel threatened, especially in isolated situations. Men should be more aware and more empathetic. Not being predisposed to violence against women is not good enough. Being aware that just your presence is enough to cause fear, and doing your reasonable best to mitigate that is not a big ask.

She wanted him to do what any decent man would have done!!!!!!

There will be no follow up questions on this point

No-one is spreading hate or fear or discrimination and mistrust about men.

Men do that all by themselves when they rape and assault women which they do everyday of every week up and down the country.

1 in 8 girls in this country is raped before reaching her 18th birthday.

If you really cared about trust, you'd do something to reduce the prevalence of rape or to facilitate the processing of rape cases in the courts - such as campaigning for rape-specific courts so that rape victims don't have to wait years to get to court in the first place. You could also campaign for minimum sentences for rape and longer sentences for rape than are currently given to make women and children safer.

No-one is spreading hate or fear or discrimination and mistrust about men.

Men do that all by themselves when they rape and assault women which they do everyday of every week up and down the country.

1 in 8 girls in this country is raped before reaching her 18th birthday.

If you really cared about trust, you'd do something to reduce the prevalence of rape or to facilitate the processing of rape cases in the courts - such as campaigning for rape-specific courts so that rape victims don't have to wait years to get to court in the first place. You could also campaign for minimum sentences for rape and longer sentences for rape than are currently given to make women and children safer.

No-one is spreading hate or fear or discrimination and mistrust about men.

Men do that all by themselves when they rape and assault women which they do everyday of every week up and down the country.

1 in 8 girls in this country is raped before reaching her 18th birthday.

If you really cared about trust, you'd do something to reduce the prevalence of rape or to facilitate the processing of rape cases in the courts - such as campaigning for rape-specific courts so that rape victims don't have to wait years to get to court in the first place. You could also campaign for minimum sentences for rape and longer sentences for rape than are currently given to make women and children safer.

This. I teach my son's to be respectfull of women, but they also need to respectful if him. I teach them to not go out of there way if a women is approaching, they don't need to cross roads etc. my kids walk alongside busy roads, why should they put themselves at risk by crossing them? As long as they arnt doing anything wrong they why should they? No man has ever crossed to road to avoid passing me and nothing has ever happened, we normally say a polite hello. That's what I've taught my boys

My question to OP is that did you expect him to do given the choices you chose to make? He wasn’t following you, he didn’t change direction, you did. He didn’t know who was coming up behind him until he stopped to look, or what their intentions were, he took an action that I would choose if I was him.

This really is the most likely scenario.

People zone out all the time when they're out walking. It's part of the point. They're not thinking or even noticing other walkers - they're thinking about nature, or mulling over their worries, or philosophising in their heads. As long as you're not physically inconveniencing others around you, it's perfectly OK to do this. Even if you're a man.

This is a nothingburger of a situation. This isn't the same as a man behind a woman at night crossing the road to make her feel safer, which most men know to do in 2026. (Even then they don't have to do it in every situation - if a man needs to stay on one side of the road because he's turning a corner on that side or if he lives on that side, that's OK.)

But in this case there's nothing this man could or should have done differently. If you walk in the woods you have to accept that there may be men with long hair who stop to take things out of their rucksacks. That's acceptable behaviour and they don't need to avoid doing it. They don't actually need to have other people's anxiety at the forefront of their minds at all times.

Agreed, I sometimes thing a 'manosphere' type programme needs to be made on some of the people on here. Purposely spreading hate, fear, discrimination and mistrust about men.
Can you imagine if there was a similar site for men(there probably is), lm sure Louis would have something to say about that!

So parents have to treat their sons like the enemy and have a long list of rules that sons have to be taught about how to treat women like victims and delicate little flowers

So what are the rules for women or are they all saints they dont need any?

The likely scenario here is that the man barely noticed OP when she passed him the first time because he was thinking about something completely different. He walked on, and decided he needed something from his backpack - it could have been a map, a snack, his phone, it could even be that he felt something like asthma coming on and needed an inhaler urgently. So he stopped to get it out, then carried on his way again, having barely noticed OP walking past him again.

It's only OP who's made up some scenario where he was somehow at fault for the crime of having long hair, being in her vicinity, and carrying on with his walk without acknowledging her existence. We don't need to encourage other people to feel afraid in this totally harmless set of circumstances.

Agree. I have one of each and won’t be raising them differently. Certainly won’t be teaching my ds to feel inferior.

So parents have to treat their sons like the enemy and have a long list of rules that sons have to be taught about how to treat women like victims and delicate little flowers

So what are the rules for women or are they all saints they dont need any?

Your gut instinct told you this was a dangerous situation so you turned back towards the area where other people would be, you did the correct thing, always follow your instincts

Bollox. Absolute bollox.

You are minimising reality. The known daily reality of women everywhere.

The experience of women on the internet is also a known and documented reality. It appears this site has been hopelessly infiltrated now.

Are you a man?