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Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a world where we didn’t have to take all sorts of precautions to avoid creeps, predators, and stalkers? Rather than us having to find ways to be constantly on the defense from attacks and unwanted advances, wouldn’t it be just lovely if such advances didn’t happen? I definitely think that, when it comes to men preying on women, everyone in that equation should receive some feedback. The instruction to men is hey don’t do that, that’s not okay, STOP IT. Unfortunately, the instruction to women is, hey, even if we tell men to not do bad things, many of them still will, so it’d be irresponsible to not advise you on how to defend yourself.
We can’t live as if the world is what we want it to be—we have to live in a way that keeps us safe in the world as it is. And that means knowing that some dudes out there don’t respect boundaries, privacy, or the female experience at large. All I want, as a woman, is to be able to go about my day, doing whatever I want, without editing my behavior to keep me safe from ill-intentioned men. I’d love to just walk wherever I want, at any time of day, speak to strangers (should the mood strike me), dine out alone, and do whatever I want online, without fear that someone will somehow take advantage of me. But, that’s not the world we live in.
If there are any men who hope to get close to you by unethical means, and without your consent, the Internet is a pretty useful resource for them. We make it even more useful (for them—harmless for us) with some of the things we post on there. Here are things you do online that make it easy for a guy to stalk you.
Leaving your profiles public
The easiest thing you can do to help prevent online stalking is set your profiles to private. That way, you’ll have to reviews someone’s request to friend/follow you, before he can just look at all of your posts. If you must have a public social media page for business purposes, then have a fan page—where you only post business-related posts—and a personal one, that you keep private.
