Why are men such creeps?

[Aditya]

Yesterday I went to buy breakfast and was waiting for them to pack it. A guy came, ordered and was waiting for the same reason. There were two other girls near the stall. The guy kept glancing at them, and I was sitting on my scooty where I could see all three of them. After a few minutes he started staring at the girls continuously, not blinking, checking them out. The girls must have sensed it and felt uncomfortable; they were laughing and chatting before, but then they stood quietly to avoid attention. I went to collect my order. While I was paying the vendor and taking my parcel, he started staring at me too and smiled. Since I saw him checking those girls, I got really angry. I asked him, "What the f*** are you staring at?" That caught him off guard and he tried to act innocent. I yelled at him, saying I saw him checking out the girls, smiling and rubbing his pants. The girls spoke up after a minute or two. The guy left abruptly, muttering to himself. Meanwhile the other men just stood there doing nothing, and after I collected my order I saw them laughing about what happened. These men didn't have the courage to stand up, they just laughed.

[Tarun]

Men just want validation from other men; they'll never stand up for anyone.

[Subhash]

Sometimes I call those men out too. There's a whole bunch of them who message me here, and when I blast them they reply, 'Why didn't you ignore? You could have just ignored.' What is this entitlement? We should call them criminals because this is criminal behaviour and they are terrorising people.

[Arpita]

Forgot to say, great job, OP! We need more strong women like you. More power to you!

[Meera]

These incidents are so common they've become part of the culture now. It's pathetic and sad.

[Aftab]

At this point I think it's just how they all are, no exceptions. The ones who seem nice are just good at hiding it.

[Ayaan]

Good job, OP! Glad the other girls spoke up after a couple of minutes. Next time I hope they'll speak for themselves and call out such creeps immediately. I don't even want to talk about the 'men'. Do you think those guys will stop doing what they did? Will the other men stand up next time? Will they stop laughing and making it a joke? I'm more worried about why those girls didn't stand up for themselves.

[Chirag]

Many men rarely speak up, even in their own groups. Even if they know someone is doing something terrible, they stay silent, and that's how the 'all men' narrative spreads.

[Harendra]

These are the men who call themselves 'protectors' and scream 'not all men' on social media. Bystanders.

[Charu]

Men will only speak up when women complain about them. 'But not all men...' I wouldn't be surprised if I saw men defending his actions here. Also, kudos to you, OP! You did great.

[Ansh]

If you had posted over there, I bet someone would have said something like, 'Men don't intervene because they're scared of false rape accusations.' Whenever I saw stuff like this in public, it was always women who called the creeps out, at least for me. Thanks to those women I found my voice. I always call that stuff out to make them uncomfortable. They're used to women ignoring them, so they get cocky and overconfident. They'll only speak out when something bad happens to them. If a guy did this to them, there would be an uproar.