Hey! What are you looking at!

Hey! What are you looking at?
Do you really want an answer?
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There are several instances that we get asked the very pointed question "what are you looking at"? It's a phrase that is most often shouted or spoken forcefully. Many times the answer to this question marks the start of some sort of argument. Think about this, do you really want an answer? Are you just opening yourself up for public embarrassment?

Here are just a few examples.

The Freaks 
And yes I use the term lightly

One segment of society that seems to make frequent use of the question in question are people that some would say have a freakish appearance or exhibit freakish behavior. People with 15 nose-rings and a tattoo of an aardvark on their neck sort of spring to mind. I don't personally have any tattoos but I will admit some of this artwork is simply amazing. What I can't fathom is why you would spend 8 hours being repeatedly stabbed by a needle in order to have a beautiful rendition of an aardvark on your neck,... if you didn't want people to look at it! I mean you can't see it yourself without a mirror.

I kinda understand it in a way. This is the punk rock counter culture. Punk rockers (the real ones) feel that by expressing thoughts contrary to societal norm that they are expressing individuality. So they rush out for an aardvark to the neck which any normal sane person would find strange and look at with puzzled expressions. The next step is to forever use this aardvark to make normal people feel bad for finding this tattoo and it's placement odd somehow. The part the average person unfortunately doesn't get to see when they walk away is the following conversation:

Punk 1 - HAha I made that guy feel like an idiot!
Punk 2 - Yeah totally that was awesome!
Punk 3 - Yeah but dude you have a F@$king AARDVARK ON YOUR NECK!!!!!

Those of you that have really cool tattoos that don't mind people looking at them are the ones that are really expressing yourselves. The fact that you are so into the artwork that you are consenting to allow the artist to use your body as a canvas is a level of commitment that few people reach. It's not for everyone and you accept that fact so bonus points for you!

Those Over-Burdoned by Beauty 
I'm Too Sexy to LIVE!

I live in the downtown core of a University town. This is where all the bars are. If you can find a place to park you can go club hopping on foot because every other building has a bar in it. Summer and winter alike the clothing is scarcer than an original thought in Hollywood! Sometimes when I go out for a walk on a Friday or Saturday night my eyes feel like ping-png balls from the over activity. Occasionally I see a woman who is just extraordinarily beautiful and I just can't help but stare. I mean I try not to. I try to use my peripheral vision. I don't want to appear creepy after all. On even rarer occasions a woman such as this will catch my gaze and smile back at me. At this point she is officially out of my league because she was able to look at my expression, realize my appreciation of her beauty and make the decision to be flattered. This denotes above average intelligence. Strikingly beautiful intelligent women seem to steer clear of unknown Musicians, non best selling writers and guys that need to spend some time in the gym. I am all three.

Other times an amazingly beautiful woman looks back at you and says "What the F@$k are you looking at"? For some reason I can't explain, they go from awe inspiring beauty to fugly in 0.0000043 seconds flat. A defence mechanism perhaps?

Just once I would like to have the presence of mind to say something biting and witty but I'm afraid my remark would lose all it's power when I have to explain what I meant...

Guy Who Catches you Looking at His Girlfriend 
,... and he's also drunk.

If you have a girlfriend and she's attractive, my looking or seeming to look at her should not be taken as an insult to your masculinity. If you're that insecure that you think I can walk up, and whisper "let's go" in her ear and steal her away from you, I'm probably not your biggest problem. You may need to do some self esteem work or your girlfriend may be looking to escape your relationship. It could also be that your girlfriend is extremely eager to please! In either case if I am really stealing her away I am doing you a favor.

It's more likely that the two of you are standing at the bar and I'm trying to get the bartender's attention so I can order a drink. This also explains the side to side body motion that is causing me to rub against her. She's tall and I have to look over her shoulder first to her left,...then over to her right to see the bartender! If this offends you just imagine I'm doing it to you!

See that? By comparison it's not so bad!


The Differently Able 
,... and the crowd goes mild!

I was crossing the street less than a block from my apartment and there were two morbidly obese women in wheelchairs one of whom had both legs amputated just below the knee.Yes I understand that it's difficult to stay fit when confined to a wheelchair I mention their weight only to paint a picture of the actual situation not to make fun of people who are overweight.

I wasn't staring, I really wasn't. I was facing their direction and looking at the lights waiting for them to change so I could cross the street. The non-amputee began to shout at me. "Haven't you ever seen a disabled person before"? Now it's not like I leered at her disabled friend or made some expression of shock or horror at the sight of her. Often times when I see someone with a disability I wonder how I would cope if I were disabled in the same way. I think that's an honest reaction really, but perhaps I'm wrong.

What makes me angry is this stupid cow, this unlikely union of a bloated Fembot and a Daleck actually thinks that I'm looking at her friend and thinking things like "haha I've got legs and you don't". Here I am waiting for the light trying to empathize with the plight of a disabled person, doing all of this in my head of course which makes it my own business!

This caused me to have an epiphany. This is the very reason people resent disabled parking spots! When they see that the only parking spot within a quarter mile of the shop they want to go into is reserved for the handicapped they don't think of the decent kind and considerate differently able person (which is the vast majority of people that need to use these spaces) they think of Attila the rolling hun on the street corner blocking the entire sidewalk yelling "i can stare longer than you can".