AIBU to think there’s no legitimate reason why men need their hoods up on a train.

[outofofficeon]

Disclaimer- I’m old and from the country and yes, this is a very silly question, I mean it light heartedly.

But honestly, why WOULD you keep a hood up during daylight and when it’s warm (todays example being on a train) if you had nothing to hide.

I don’t mean a normal tracksuit hood if they’d just been working out, I mean where it’s so pulled forward that the face is obscured. AIBU to think there’s absolutely no legitimate reason why this is necessary. As a woman travelling alone I find it very intimidating.

I can understand the balaclava feeling intimidating as it is used to avoid recognition

but hoodies aww maybe we should all go round hugging young men wearing hoodies that would soon stop them

Same. I think that's a legitimate reason, actually. Not that it's anyone else's business.

It's not that people are going to talk to you though. Social spaces have boundaries.
Its giving the appearance of actively dissuading people from engaging.

Luckily the older people on the Huntington train were still up for the challenge of a hood up nutter.

I make friends doing my hobbies, through my business, through mutual interests with other people - not because I’ve spoken to a random stranger on a bus 🙈

I think it's because a lot of MNers are the mothers of kids in hoodies! So they know that all types of teenagers do it now - good, bad and somewhere in between. Generally they're generally doing it for daft kid reasons (fashion/ self consciousness/ everyone does and it's normal) or something sensory or just being sensitive to cold but refusing to wear a coat ... etc. not anything sinister (fabric hoodies as in the OP, not the balaclavas someone mentioned!).

What does this mean? Are you seriously claiming men don't feel the cold? I know it's me (middle aged woman with an active job) who always wants to open windows and DH (middle aged man with desk job - who does actually wear hoodies come to think of it) who's always bloody complaining he's cold and overheating the house and closing the windows... My teen and young adult sons wear "active" / ski thermals under their football kits for training in winter and most of their teammates do - they definitely feel the cold sitting still as someone on a train would be!

When was that the general rule especially at commuter time? I commuted by train, tube and bus in London in the 1990s and even accidentally making eye contact was a sure sign of being the crazy person (as we would have said then) or a tourist... In the early '90s I had a disc-man and a book to block the world out (especially the sniffing people you always get on early morning buses...).

Quite frankly I think you're talking nonsense.
You're example is completely made up. I don't see or hear about this "trend". I don't want to make small talk to total strangers on the bus, in a queue, in a waiting room etc, but if someone speaks to me I'll very politely respond. I've never seen anyone have a panick attack over being spoken to.
Stop feeling sad for people who are perfectly happy. It just makes you look daft.

Obvious innit? The Crown Jewels. No chance of getting mugged when wearing a hoodie…or in her case a scarfie / hatie but she would have looked ace in a hoodie and she’d have totally kicked ass, and then been frightfully apologetic afterwards!

both my dc wear their hoods up, warmth, headphones, and for ds it’s so he can hide from the world as he’s exceptionally shy and very under confident it’s basically saying ‘please don’t talk to me’.

Not on fucking trains, though.

We're not barbarians!