Have you had to deal with random harassment?

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I'm not talking about dealing with the more "constant" bullies like in a workplace or school or shared living context or what have you...but random bullying from people you didn't know. Basically people who were hypersensitive to some difference they picked up on you, or had the psychological "predatory instinct".

I do remember back in university at 19, I was walking down the hall and maybe it was something in my walk or gaze, but a group of 3-4 guys called me over and asked "we just wanted to know, are you a virgin??" (I walked away without replying, why bother.) I also got random questions about "on drugs" or gay on a couple of occasions.

It has caused me a bit of paranoia in the past (mostly teens and part of twenties) that whenever people were laughing in a given context, like a crowded bus or area or whatever, that they were laughing at ME. More often than not, they probably weren't.

With my Asperger "inert spontaneity" social reflex, I hardly got a good comeback in on any of those instances. More like a deer in the headlights.

Even as a kid around the age of 13-16, and I swear that NT kids must have a predatory instinct built into them...I was biking or walking through some park trail, and these younger kids (like around the age of 8-11) harassed and threatened me. I'd never seen them before. I was astonished at their aggressive manner, like do I have a big target on me or something?? It wasn't till I was diagnosed at the age of 27 that I cast a backwards glance and realized that they must have seen something in my walk or posture that suggested "victim" or "loser", even though I was physically bigger than them.

Unfortunately, I have read horror stories online in the news about Aspies who were assaulted by people whom they didn't know, who just reacted very negatively to their "odd" demeanour. I feel lucky to have escaped those situations. And I found it truly ironic that in the 13-16 years old period, that more than one person told me that I'm paranoid

Yes, I have been, but mostly since I've been in my current location. I don't know how much it has to do with some subtle weirdness vibes I give off, but I'm willing to bet that it has a lot to do with looking much younger than I am, being a womon, and people getting a vibe that I'm an easy-going person. A "weak" vibe, in their minds.

I have gotten it in childhood from kids who I didn't even know despite going to the same school as me. I also remember young as three when I was playing in a park on a playground and for some reason these older kids didn't want me around so they kept pushing me and pinching me and I kept on playing and I had these marks on my body and my dad was checking them out going "Oh Beth" as if I did something wrong. I remember my parents made me stop playing there because the kids were being so mean. I also remember when I was nine, I was at one of my brother's t ball games and I was off by myself and these little boys who looked to be about my brothers age kept knocking my stuff down and saying they're not sorry and then they started to throw rocks at me because they thought I was stupid because I didn't know what 18 times 18 was. I couldn't even do the math in my head. Even this three year old boy joined in too because he also thought I was stupid. And people think toddlers are so innocent.

Now today people leave me alone.

A few people enjoyed getting weird reactions from me. They act like they are being friendly, but I think they really want to make me do embarrassing things and laugh about me behind my back. When I was a kid I was naive enough to actually befriend them, but now I keep a distance from them. Unfortunately I seem to attract people like that. As I've gotten older I've been attracting them less and less. I guess that means I'm doing something right.

Yes, as a kid it used to happen to me almost every time I was around new people.
It only stopped when I got bigger and strong enough to defend myself.

Yes people do sense the difference or weakness, and NTs follow an intuition to become aggressive due to the mind viruses that they host. It is not their reasoning that leads to the bullying behaviors. They just succumb to the intuition/feeling which then controls their behavior. It feels good to them because the mind virus works with the chemical reward feedback system in the brain.

When an NT is alone ( no other NTs around ), then the chances of them using their reason to control their behavior is increased greatly. The more peers are present the more likely they will follow their intuition.

The mind viruses are part of a system intelligence with a one-to-many topology.

Story of my life. It used to bother me, but now I just try to take the attitude that "haters gonna hate".

Yes, although if a stranger says something to me I usually don't store it in my long term memory. Luckily I have not had any violent responses from strangers thus far in life. I always get odd stares, even if I'm wearing the plainest t-shirt and jeans I have. Just a couple weeks ago when I was at the store with my sister, these two college age girls stared at me, and one gave me funny look then whispered something to her friend after I walked by.

There were only a couple kids in my elementary that would play with me. One of them would sit with me at lunch and copy my rocking stim because he thought it was cool.

I tried to sit at this table (the "gothic" one) at lunch one time in middle school and this girl blocked the seat and said "You can't sit with us, you SCARE me." I have gotten a lot of comments like that one. People seem to automatically know I'm "different". Either I freak them out, or they think I'm weak or strange.

Yes, in college when I was taking kickboxing and "Insanity" classes. It had to do with my clumsiness when doing the more coordinated exercises. It took me longer than the others and sometimes I would stop to observe everyone before doing it "the right way" myself. I don't catch on quickly.

It didn't bother me so much after the random harassment. Often these were ditzy sorority girls who had no credibility with most other people anyway. But it did hurt a little when it happened. I'm ashamed of my lack of coordination.

I have countless stories of being randomly harassed by people I don't even know, starting at about age 7, and yes it even happens until the present day for me. I've been picked on by tons of people in school, public places, workplaces etc. The most recent incidents would be here in Jamaica where I moved over three years ago to be with my husband, the weird thing is that it was two separate incidents, but in each case a total stranger accused me of looking like a mannequin, or "statue" as they call it here. One was a teenage girl and the other was a grown man, and he even went to the trouble of stopping his car just to shout it out at me from across the street! There was also some ratty-looking old dude here that dissed me about the shape of my nose, which I am horribly self-conscious about anyhow to begin with. I just can't believe people can be bothered to do such dumb things! From years of being taunted and marked out, it made me evolve into a very harsh-tongued opponent who could ferret out any person's weakness and use it against them to come back with a retort that would totally humiliate them, to the point where their own friends would start laughing at them, but that's normally when I anticipate it, these ones totally shocked me so I said nothing. But there really is something about me that draws that type of behaviour from people.

That happens a lot to me. I even feel it's dangerous for me to go to any public places.

Yes, Jayo, I have gotten this several times throughout my post-adolescent life. But I think it's due to a combination of factors that mark me as 'odd', of which autism is one. I'm a fairly off-beat individual, and folks pick up on that pretty fast.

I think it happens to a lot of eccentric people in general, and also to people who find themselves in the minority. But something that makes it a bit harder for autistics if it happens to them, is that -as you describe in your first post- we tend to not have a witty comeback, we usually don't know what to say in response that would be proper for defending ourselves or brushing off the comments/harrassment. That has been my own personal experience, at least.

I've received some minor harrassment from strangers on account of both my ethnicity and my feminine mannerisms as well, and it kinda hurts every time. I'm thankful that I've never experienced violence, though.

By far the worst thing occurred on November 5, 2012. Before "knockout" attacks became a news item one evening I was picking up something to read on the way home some guy punched me back in the head I was briefly unconscious and fell and broke my upper arm. The store owners collared the guy for the police but the security cameras were supposedly not working and the store owner "suddenly" had to go back to Egypt so nothing the DA could do to get me justice. While "knockout like" it was not a true knockout attack but random, the guy attacked somebody else the next night then a few days later was spotting running in the traffic lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge so he was put away for a time. Oddly enough this incident would set off a series of events that would lead to diagnosis the next summer.

I was robbed twice during the 1980's high crime era.

On occasion people riding by in a car will scream at me to get me to jump. They are usually successful. On rare occasions somebody in a passing car will throw an object at me. I kind of suspect is was not autistic traits that got me victimized but truly random, they would have done that to anybody walking alone there at that point.

But it course now I can't help but wonder if my Autistic traits had something to do with the attacks but I doubt that.

I don't believe this is aspie-related, but it is random harassment.

When I was 13 and was walking down the street in my town, I was repeatedly honked at and whistled at by guys in cars. It was extremely unnerving.

Yes, I've gotten more harassment from strangers than I have people I know. In fact I don't think I have had harassment from ANYONE I know! Through school I got rejected a lot, but I don't think that is classed as harassment. But I know that whenever I have ever felt harassed by people, it has always been by strangers!

I'd agree that the crap I got from people that knew me well wouldn't technically be classified as harassment. Otherwise I could go on for days. But strangers or relative strangers that I've only met once or twice have given me plenty of issues over the years. I once went to a lifeguard class where these three girls turned and stared at me with hatred before turning their backs completely. No one in the entire class would speak to me the entire time out of some unspoken agreement. Every camp I went to over the summers had at least a dozen or so kids (male and female) that would bully me like crazy and somehow convince every single one of the others that I was 'damaged goods'. I've had random people tell me I look scary or like a murderer. Sometimes I'll just be in the grocery store and I can see people edging away with their kids when I look up from my basket. (And I haven't even spoken to them!) And there was always at least one guy in school who would ask creepy questions about how 'experienced' I was and then would call me names when I didn't answer out of shock.

Good times.

I get random sexual harassment. It's gotten worse over the last several years. Years ago I used to go out by myself a lot, even at night, and no one ever bothered me. I only got harassed by guys I knew, not total strangers. But it's gotten to the point where men I don't know at all will come up and start talking to me in a really demeaning way. It's making me afraid to go anywhere alone.