A Theory of Creepiness
aeon.co
A Theory of Creepiness
1–10 of 75 posts
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#2Thinking about movie stereotypes about ie: people who collect hair, I think a distinction should be made between those described as merely "scary" and those described as "creepy".
Take a horror movie. If said collector is a recluse who's history nobody knows about, they're described as scary. If they're out and about, visiting neighbors, trying to relate and engage with people, they are much more likely to be described as creepy.
As such, bringing it back to everyday behavior, I think the critical aspect that determines whether something is creepy or not is whether there is a mismatch between what the person is explicitly informing they want to do (be a friendly neighbor), and whether the person on the receiving end suspects there are ulterior motives (they want to collect hair).
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#3I think it's really naive to brush aside the fact that almost all women elicited thoughts of men as being creepy. Women are scared of being raped or worse happening to them, and they're constantly on the lookout for it. This has nothing to do with "categorization", and everything to do with "potentially dangerous".
Being afraid of a creepy guy who won't leave you alone is very different than being creeped out by a clown or an abandoned building.
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#4I think it's really naive to brush aside the fact that almost all women elicited thoughts of men as being creepy. Women are scared of being raped or worse happening to them, and they're constantly on the lookout for it. This has nothing to do with "categorization", and everything to do with "potentially dangerous". Being afraid of a creepy guy who won't leave you alone is very different than being creeped out by a cl…
Is it very different though? Both fall within, as explained in the article, the ambiguity and mental paralysis coming from being unable to determine whether or not a threat exists.
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#5I think it's really naive to brush aside the fact that almost all women elicited thoughts of men as being creepy. Women are scared of being raped or worse happening to them, and they're constantly on the lookout for it. This has nothing to do with "categorization", and everything to do with "potentially dangerous". Being afraid of a creepy guy who won't leave you alone is very different than being creeped out by a cl…
Is it very different though? Both fall within, as explained in the article, the ambiguity and mental paralysis coming from being unable to determine whether or not a threat exists.
Agreed. I think a good approximate description of "creepy" might be "ambiguous or novel, absent overt signaling of pacific intent".
Or, more crudely: "wtf" - "oh, it's harmless".
What's interesting to me is that under such a definition there's a clear notion of intentionality. Something can only be creepy when it's behavior is directed towards an object. While it might be tempting to point towards places that are creepy (e.g. abandoned hospital), I would suggest that these are eerie rather than creepy.
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#6I was hoping that the article would explain the increase in the popularity of 'creepy':
https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=creepy https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=creepy&year_st...
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#7I was hoping that the article would explain the increase in the popularity of 'creepy': https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=creepy https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=creepy&year_st...
There's a similar surge over a similar time interval for 'scary', so maybe it's just correlated with other properties of the content they're sampling (not unlike https://xkcd.com/1138/):
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=scary&year_sta...
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#8I was hoping that the article would explain the increase in the popularity of 'creepy': https://www.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=creepy https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=creepy&year_st...
I'm stating the obvious but it's spiking every October in anticipation of Halloween. Ignoring those spikes and looking at the growth trend that began around 2007, it looks fairly organic and has remained relatively flat since mid 2014. What kicked it off in 2007 I don't know.
The term has simply become a short-hand way of describing something that brings unease. The problem with the term is that people aren't actually describing what characteristics are bringing that sense of unease, thus someone who's a little awkward gets lumped in with far worse characters. So it can be used indiscriminately but it's an easy way to describe something that's difficult to define, hence its ongoing popularity.
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#9I found this essay interesting:
>It’s not “creepy” if he’s hot. I freely admit it. When a very attractive stranger approaches me and tells me I’m beautiful, it brightens my day. When a guy who is short, fat or balding does it, it makes my skin crawl no matter how tactful he is about it. I just want him to go away. I’m not alone in feeling this way. Most women feel the same, but hide the true extent of it when the guys are around.
Re: A Theory of Creepiness
#10I found this essay interesting: > It’s not “creepy” if he’s hot. I freely admit it. When a very attractive stranger approaches me and tells me I’m beautiful, it brightens my day. When a guy who is short, fat or balding does it, it makes my skin crawl no matter how tactful he is about it. I just want him to go away. I’m not alone in feeling this way. Most women feel the same, but hide the true extent of it when the gu…
I know this was a hyperbolic rant, but it's deplorable how this author literally dehumanizes men. The essay may be interesting, but it's mostly just monstrous.