People like to use the word "creep" with a lot more frequency than they did say 10-15 years ago. As a guy I get that some men can certainly be creepy and I have no issue with men being called out for bad "creepy" behaviors such as following a woman around, approaching her aggressively while she is alone, ambushing her at her job and just not respecting her personal space or safety. Unfortunately it seems that people, mostly men are being called out as creeps for no fault of their own other than looking a certain way. Even worse is that there are people who are part of a social justice lynch mob that seem to delight and even take pride in creep shaming others. The problem with this is that in today's hyper sensitive intolerant environment the label of creep can cause a lot of problems for a person.

What disturbs me a bit and what I do have a problem with is the rise of what seems to be calling men out for things they can't help vs. something they actually did. A tech start up I worked for a few years back had a very socially awkward IT helpdesk guy who looked the part of the stereotypical engineer with the lack of fashion sense and uncombed looking hair. Other than his looks however he was a nice guy and never said anything inappropriate to anyone. That did not stop a few mean girls in marketing from making a point to squeal and gossip about how creepy he was every time he would walk by or leave after helping someone. One day I was at his desk and he was helping me with an IT issue for the hundredth time and I told him I appreciated him and all of his help. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said that he wished everyone felt the way I did and that he was aware of the creep shaming those girls were doing to him. I'll never forget his words, he said "I can't help how I look" and what really made me furious was how the creep shaming made him feel like he needed to defend himself and prove he was not a bad guy. The problem is that it is really hard, if not impossible for a man to defend himself after a woman calls him creep

About a year ago I was at the park and there was a guy who looked like Steve Buscemi's ugly younger brother and he was doing Tai Chi and more importantly he was minding his own business. That however did not stop two young ladies who looked to be in their early 20s say "Oh my GAAAWD he is SUUUCH a CREEP!!" and one of them even said that somebody should "arrest him for being so creepy!!"

For the record I'm not saying that all or even most women do this, I know they do not. I will also say that I've heard men doing the same thing, basically ripping on a guy because of the way he looks and maybe being a little socially awkward. There was a guy on my sales team like this a few years back and a couple of my male counterparts had this running joke about how "creepy" the guy was and that he probably had body parts in his freezer at home.

Isn't the whole message of our woke era that we are not supposed to judge people on how they look?