I get why men stare at women, mommy explained that to me at the tender age of 10, but what the hell is up with the women who stare at women?
I’m referring to the type of women you see when you’re out and about, at the mall or a restaurant who make it their mission to take-in every detail about you. They fixate like a teething puppy on a pair of stilettos. The entire purpose of their being will be to examine you. Like crackheads they become consumed with you. Their bulging eyes pop out of their heads and their necks twist as they size you up s-l-o-w-l-y and shamelessly from head to toe. And you know that somewhere in their sick heads; some little ticker is archiving everything.
I was doing some grocery shopping the other day placing my items on the cashier’s counter when I felt two pairs of scrutinizing eyes burning holes through me. Behind me stood two relatively young women. One was top heavy wearing a sheer crimson top that did no justice to her already sagging rack and the other was a what’s considered a big woman with a difficult-to-miss hairy mole on her right cheek. They both looked like life may not have been too kind on them and had this bitter confrontational look on their faces. The kinda look that spelled trouble.
I quickly gazed in their direction, giving them one of those “I know you’re staring so stop” kinda looks but they didn’t budge. Instead they held the stare right back at me until we were all interrupted by the cashier who noticed that I had forgotten to get one of my veggies priced. Seconds later, I felt their vicious eyes on me once again but this time they were accompanied with not-so-discreet whispers and giggles. At that moment, one of them pressed my then empty cart on my hips and rudely said “can you move this” as she tried to make way for her cart.
The cashier was now aware of the situation. It was like watching a scene from the National Geographic. A duel created to simply establish the peck order. The grocery store had suddenly become the jungle. I could either concede or stand my ground.
Let me tell you they messed with the wrong species that day.
“My cart will stay here” I hissed as I firmly gripped the cart with my claws and pushed back “and I will move it only when I’M done”
It was obvious my reaction took them by surprise. They tried to save face by acting unthreatened by my show of force. Suddenly, they looked much smaller in size and less intimidating so I decided to take go all the way, teach dem bitches a lesson they’ll never forget.
“By the way, they sell mirrors downstairs you should really look at one before leaving the house next time.”
I waited for their next move but nothing. Checkmate. And just like that I made my glorious exit, leaving them with their jaws hanging in the air.
Read More On Staring Problems
Brett Weer says
Hey ivy. Hilarious, so true! We have featured you in today’s Blog Roundup.
http://www.albawaba.com/blog_roundup/hub-gamer-dubaii-441793
If you’d rather that I didn’t post here about our featuring your site, please let me know.
Keep it up!
Brett Weer
Ivy says
Thank you Brett. Always happy to be featured on Al Bawaba 🙂
LebExile says
hey Ivy, great post – looked like it was going to be a cat fight at the local supermarket – cant believe they backed down!
Victoria says
You are hilarious! I’m so happy I came across your blog. I’m Lebanese from NYC and now I am living in Beirut. It’s always pleasing to find people from here that are similar to my friends from home. When I moved here last year, I found it rather odd how everyone in this country has a staring problem and just like you, I can’t stand it, I hate it!!! The worse is when you are at the mall and you are not dressed up to the nines and feel like all eyes are on you, commenting on why you are not dressed appropriately- that is why you are not wearing 8 inch heels, tight jeans/short skirt, and boob revealing shirt, oh and 10 lbs of makeup. I don’t have a problem telling anyone off in the classiest way, but there have been many times I just wish I spoke Arabic well enough to tell them to please find someone else to gawk at. I just resort to saying something funny in Spanish and walk away laughing! Look forward to more entertaining stories from you! Take care =)
Ella says
I honestly thought I was the only one that didn’t know that casual clothes were “too casual” to the mall! I’ve lived my entire life in Canada, and when it came to shopping, I usually wore black tights, a sweater, flats, hair in a bun or ponytail (ie casual).
It had been a good 5/6 years since I’ve been to Lebanon, until last summer when I went to visit my grandparents. Five years ago, I wasn’t fully aware of the pre-occupation with beauty and public appearance as I was practically a kid at the time.. But this summer was a toooootally different ball-game as I was experiencing Lebanon as a 19 year-old female. Anyway, one day I decided to go shopping and naturally, I dressed as casually as I did in Canada. LO AND BEHOLD the stares I got. Every girl had her face painted to the last millimetre of visible skin, heels were obnoxiously high and clothes were way too tight to sift through clothing racks. Let me tell you, I know perfectly well how to dress! But it’s the worst feeling when those same people glare at you like you’ve done something wrong by not dressing to their expectations even though they’re the ones that look horrifically out of place (in my opinion).
I wish I had the nerve to confront them, but my broken arabic isn’t too effective in that department, I imagine.
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Nour says
It’s unnecessarily cruel to mock people’s physical appearance in such a public way, even if you feel like they were staring at you. Maybe a better option would have been for you to tell them that what they were doing was rude and to leave it at that.
mid says
exactly, their appearance has nothing to do with what they said/did. Describing their moles and shapes is not relevant in this article and what you said was extremely hurtful (much more than someone staring at you …