Selangor - Ghetto Styles!
Malaysia is a land of contrast. Rich and poor, overdone cleanliness and dirty disgustingness, wonderful food (claypot mee) and the stuff nightmares are made of (nasi lemak). Overall I would say one of the most noticeable contrasts is that between super-dooper nice people and strange scary Ted Bundy ‘im’a kill you girl’ types. I have met some of the friendliest people on earth here, people that you could ask the world of and they wouldn’t consider it too much. I don’t know if it’s a case of looking bad my comparison, but these mega-awesome people are offset by some of the most scary mo-fo's that I have come across in my 22+ years on this earth.
The streets of downtown Selangor seem to have a disproportionate amount of strange men with sinister glints in their eyes. I'm not used to feeling uncomfortable and unsafe. Aside from a few scattered experiences, I have never really felt concerned for my safety in Melbourne. Malaysia has put me out of my comfort zone, and not always in a pleasant way. I have a newfound fear of random creepy men (and no, I'm not talking bout the Creepy Bangladeshi - that guy is small fry!) Intimidation, random yelling and freaky eyes are their weapons of choice, lethal in the hands of experts. There is a reason you are not getting any action random creeps of various nationalities, and I think your tactics for approaching women *might* have something to do with it. I don’t know where or by whom these arseholes were raised, but it is NOT normal behavior to bunch up and circle a lone girl like hungry sharks. Or to try to pressure and manhandle girls to come with you. If a girl doesn’t want to even look at you, attempting to ‘guilt’ her will not result in her sleeping with you, strange as this may seem to you. Normal relationships have never, and never will, begin with forced confrontation.
I’m not sure where this creepiness comes from. Is it a result of the various cultural upbringings of the various creeps? As a proponent of the ‘stop blaming your childhood as the cause of you being a jerk’ school of thought, I can’t quite see it this way. Is it an extreme and nasty by-product of some men’s attitudes towards women in general? Is it that these men are such social retards that they will never have the chance to be within ten feet of a woman, that they resort to forcing themselves upon and intimidating women? Not being a creepy ‘scare random girls I’m 40 and live with my mother’ type, I can’t really understand the motivation behind such behavior.
But it is intimidating, a feeling that is somewhat forgeign to me. Being independent and carefree and all that jazz, its strange having to rely on the protection of male friends to ward off potential evil-doers. The culture here is generally different to what I have grown up in and accept as the norm. If some random evil type did happen to jump you in the street, I don’t think I could safely assume that everyone within earshot will jump to your aid. It’s not like that. People live just try to get by doing their own thing, maybe because a large but largely silent majority of the population lead fairly hard lives. Maybe if I had their experiences, and had been brought up in their culture, I too would try to keep my head down as much as possible. All in all though, its quite strange and disconcerting being freaked out in public and knowing that people won't necessarily come to your aid if they see you in trouble. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not at all suggesting that the behavior of a few random men is indicative of the wider population. I love the people of Malaysia so freakin much I just wanna pinch their collective rosy cheeks. But the weirdo guys are doing my head in.
