All men should be aware of this

Absolutely spot on.

This thread is unhinged.

Not this men. All men.
shes asking for all men to understand why women might be frightened of them in remote places and to be predictable, understanding and non threatening as a response.
not that controversial imho

Not this men. All men.
shes asking for all men to understand why women might be frightened of them in remote places and to be predictable, understanding and non threatening as a response.
not that controversial imho

Are you a nervous type, young in your 20s?

I'm a 59 year old woman and have never lived my life in fear and I damn well am not going to start now!

If you read the above paragraph that you wrote, this is totally based on your perception of the situation.

Mine would have been totally different. I may have gone up to him and started a conversation. I know I would have smiled and said 'Good Afternoon' just out of general politeness. He may have thought, 'OMG! I've now got this chatty old bag ruining my walk in the woods' or he may have welcomed the opportunity to talk to someone and we may have had an interesting conversation. Either way the last thing I would have thought is that this man is going to harm or kill me because statistically speaking I probably have greater odds at being killed by a car on the way to the shops, than by a stranger in the woods. Yes, it does happen but it is probably one in a million chance.

A life full of fear is such a wasted one. I grew up in the 70s and my generation of women were taught that we were just as good as men and to get on with it.

It sounds like he was being sensitive by stopping and fiddling with his backpack while you overtook him and went on your way.

The behaviour wasn't the problem. Blaming him for his blameless behaviour was.

I don’t think she was unreasonable and I don’t think he was either.
she had a primal instinct something wasn’t safe and went into prey brain mode. I don’t think she was wrong to honour that instinct. Changing direction makes sense as she can see where he is and what he’s doing. He stopped, showing he was aware of her. So I don’t think she was wrong to honour that instinct.
on the flip side, as many have said, he might have been trying to let her pass, trying to make her feel more at ease.
no one unreasonable or horrible in this situation, nobody was disrespectful or rude.

apparently even existing near women is threatening

Oh, your poor masculine ego 😢💐💐😢

We are cautious about being near men in situations that could go pear-shaped. It's fairly tiresome to keep having to explain to Nice Guys ™ that women are prey to a sizeable proportion of men: enough that this knowledge warrants such caution. It's a bit like sheep (OK, talking sheep) patiently explaining, over and over, to assorted dog owners that their Fidos may well be fully sheep-trained little darlings, but the "No Dogs" sign is staying up and means what it says - because the sheep aren't gambling their lives on any potential predator being the well-behaved one.

And I bet you still don't get it.

Do you have kids? Do you never, ever warn them about actions or circumstances that might increase their risk of harm by predatory men? Really??

Adding a diagram as a few don’t seem to understand why I didn’t keep going into the ether and assume I was right behind the guy

There's nothing controversial in that but she's asking it in the specific context of a situation where SHE caused the problems. That's downright unreasonable, men do not have eyes in the back of their heads.

Adding a diagram as a few don’t seem to understand why I didn’t keep going into the ether and assume I was right behind the guy

It’s good to know several women don’t feel the need to be wary of men acting oddly or (women/you) being out on their own, and I mean that genuinely. Maybe I’m all too aware of what can happen (a very high profile awful case happened around the corner from me when in my last city), but I’ve not had that sick feeling for a very long time which was compounded by the guy stopping,
looking back and waiting. Don’t need any more comments I can see where this is going. But thanks :)

Absolutely spot on.

This thread is unhinged.

Not this men. All men.
shes asking for all men to understand why women might be frightened of them in remote places and to be predictable, understanding and non threatening as a response.
not that controversial imho

Poor bloke is probably posting on local social media about weird woman following him in the woods. My DH has anxiety and would get very worried if someone turned around and followed him.

However, I have been walking late in town for the last bus and seen men walking that look under the influence or a bit sinister and I have legged it to be on the safe side. In the day to a fellow walker,I would have said hello. It's about the time of day and your own physical capability. You would be fine to leave the area as you feel threatened, it is not fine to follow people who have done nothing.

Honestly, I do not understand how women have managed to be so brainwashed by social media and each other that they're convinced they're in mortal danger of being abducted or worse every time they leave the house. Reality check: men are around 3x more likely to be murdered and 2x more likely to be attacked by a stranger as women. Only 0.0005% of women are murdered each year in the uk and the perpetrators are overwhelmingly their partners or someone they know with only 6% of the 0.0005% murdered by a stranger. While it does happen it's hard to overstate how rare it is and you are genuinely far more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a stranger. Add to this that you were in broad daylight on a road where other people were passing and you are being very unreasonable.

I cannot believe the misogynist responses you're getting here OP. Describing the fear of male violence as "frothing". (There's been a massive uptick in really regressive, divisive misogynist posting on MN, especially at night. Probably a wank game for some. Maybe a political thing for others).

Or the frankly racist implication that being wary of the sex which commits well over 90% of all violent and sex crimes is like having a bias against black people. What the actual fuck?

Many women (1 in 4?) are wary of men because they've already experienced male sexual violence. Trauma reactions happen outside of conscious awareness. And regardless of life history, it is hardwired into women to check their surroundings as they go about the world. This has been scientifically demonstrated.

The vast majority of these rapes, sexual assaults and harassments aren't reported, even less secure convictions. It's hardly surprising that women don't trust the police and don't want to go through a re traumatising court experience.

So yes I think it's perfectly reasonable to ask men to consider their impact on women as they move around the world. How is it any different to other ways in which we treat the people we live amongst with tolerance and respect?

That book sounds racist.