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[–]vitunrotta 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

You're not crazy or paranoid! Seriously - our society is crazy when a woman needs to consider if they are nuts when another person follows them. Something has gone wrong waaay before you started biking. You. Are. Not. Crazy.

We've all done what you did in one form or the other - as women. We're destined to look over our shoulders when it's dark. Hell, even when it's midday. We consider our surroundings. We're always careful. Because if we're not... Well.

(I do not like to advertise Reddit to anyone anymore BUT it still has some pretty good subs. I used to follow a subreddit r/letsnotmeet and a lot, LOT of those stories were about women being stalked/followed/harassed/attacked etc. A book that many subscribers recommended was The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker. Never read it myself though, so if anyone has some negative pointers - please advise.)

Take care of yourself and never think that somebody else's feelings are more important than your life.

[–]Oof_Too_Humid 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've had The Gift of Fear and I would definitely recommend it, especially to women.
Gavin de Becker spends a portion of the book talking about how women are socialized into being polite and accommodating. Predators know this and will use it to their advantage. We need to give ourselves permission to be rude so that we don't end up as victims.
We also need to follow our gut instincts. They evolved over thousands and thousands of years for a reason and we ignore our gut instincts at our peril.