reasons you should not pat my head on the subway, a poem

[rm]

I don't know you.
I did not give you permission.
I am not a small child.
Or a dog.
We are not playing Duck, Duck, Goose.
Where have your hands been?
I hate you.

Clear?

Comments

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

People: clearly still three years old. Seriously, that was the last time I ever touched a stranger unbidden. She had a fur coat and I wanted to pet her "kitty." (Thinking back on the incident, I wonder if she was more perturbed with my wanting to touch her coat or with my making an inadvertent sexual reference.)

In any case, what a frikkin' numbskull. I hate that person on your behalf. Why did s/he want to pat your head, anyway?

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

"Because you will withdraw a bloody stump"


Ye gods who even remotely thinks it's acceptable to touch someone uninvited? Gah

[lather2002.livejournal.com]

Most likely you associated them patting your head with happy nursing time when you were a baby. I guess maybe you were bottle fed and it brought back memories you would like not to remember ?

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Sweet mother of pearl, NO. *cringes*

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

What was that convo we were having in my journal about people having lost all sense of personal boundries? :O

I get the ponytail pull and you get the heat pat.

WTF, people??? W to the EFF???

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

*shudders* People are creepy.

The "I am not a small child" thing reminded me: When I was maybe six, this random woman walked past me an rubbed my head really hard as she did so. It was so weird. It wasn't even an "Oh! Cute kid!" type of thing. She didn't even look at me.

Ugh. People should really have an appropriate sense of personal space.

[evil-girraffe.livejournal.com]

Whaaat?

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Whaatt? Did they offer you any kind of explanation? I think you're cute, I like your hair, etc? Which, no better, but less random.

Also, the Duck, Duck, Goose thing made me laugh. I would have been tempted to whack him/her on the head back as hard as I could, yell GOOSE and then RUN.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Holy crap! I would think you'd be taking your life in your hands by doing that to somone on a NY subway.

And the fact that you weren't interacting with him before hand is just uber-creepy.

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'd have been hard put not to respond with violence.

Assault *And* Battery.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Two separate offenses against the person that when used in one expression may be defined as any unlawful and unpermitted touching of another. Assault is an act that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent, harmful, or offensive contact. The act consists of a threat of harm accompanied by an apparent, present ability to carry out the threat. Battery is a harmful or offensive touching of another.
All of the above applies to any human being. Always.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Did someone actually do that? New Yorkers generally seem so good at respecting people's personal space. I figured that was a by-product of living in such close quarters.