People Stare

They do. And it drives me nuts. I stare at people too, but never longer than five seconds max. I consider it rude to be staring at people for more than ten seconds.

And I don’t know why they stare, because it’s kind of weird considering the kind of people who do it are not really what I would normally expect.

Middle aged women. One time I was having dinner with himself at a seafood restaurant and this posh, uptight-looking middle age woman who looked like she had a poker up her arse stared at me, and to the direction that I could only hope was my food, because the worst was, she could be staring at my boobs. When I’m in the shops and I see other older women, they do the up-and-down skimming over stare. Up, and down, and up again, then look straight to my eyes, look away, and look back in a matter of a split second. Then they give me one of those long stares. So long, I feel so uncomfortable and even when I stare back at them as if showing that I am aware that they are staring, they still stare.

Girls. I suspect that there are more sexually confused girls in this country than what the common public likes to think, because these girls stare in the most weirdest way ever, and I’m resolving to the most possible conclusion: they are well-hidden lesbians waiting to come out and jump me. They don’t give me the “I hate your clothes/hair/make-up” kind of stare but more like “Wow, this person has three heads and she looks like the biggest freak I’ve ever come across to” kind of stare. Even when I’m already outside the viewing distance, they crane their heads around and keep staring. With mouths open and all. Then I would be checking out whether my shirts’ buttons were unhooked or whether the zip on my pants was undone. Or whether I’ve grown another set of ears without realizing it.

Men. This comes as no surprise, because Indonesian men do stare at women and most of them are perverts, except that they seem to stare when I’m in my ugliest form – wearing ragged shirts and shorts, hair all messy and oily face like I’ve just been dumped into an oil mine, or when I’ve just finished work and on my way home, looking tired, sweaty and bleary eyed. I would like to think that the uglier people are, the lesser they provoke stares from others. I would like to think that simply by looking so unattractive I would blend in with the crowd of other tired, sweaty people who all simply feel like they look like five different kinds of shit and they just can’t wait to get home and have a shower and lie down.

When I was in Melbourne, I had an Indonesian friend who was going out with a full-on Aussie; tall, fair skinned, blond haired and blue eyed guy, and my friend was a petite Chinese-decent girl who looked more like a little kid. Whenever they went out, people stared, and most of the time it was Asian girls, most probably from Indonesia too.

Her boyfriend was like, “Are all Indonesians always staring at people like that?”

I used to tell her that it was because she and her boyfriend looked so unusual, but my theory was proven to be wrong.

Yep, Indonesians are just plain rude. They stare. For what fucking reason, I have no idea.