I would like some feedback please.....

Say you walked onto a train or bus.
You see a seat free and go and sit in it. There seems to you to be plenty of space.
But, as you make yourself comfortable, your arm brushes against the small thin woman sitting on the seat next to you.
She edges away as close into the wall as she can, gives you an angry look before turning around towards the wall, scrunching herself up as small as possible, and buries herself in her book.

Or maybe you get on the train or bus and its really crowded, grateful to see a space, you go and stand there. Next to you a short thin woman is standing. Her eyes have dark shadows beneath. She says suddenly "excuse me, can you move back please you are standing too close to me, I can't breathe when you are so close."

What would you say, do think, if you came across this woman?

Would you call her a *****, a freak? Would you look at her as if she is so weird its not true?

What would you think of this woman?

I have been told that this behaviour is not normal, is provocative, is agressive.

I feel ashamed and frustrated because its tremendously hard to explain how it feels when someone is too close to me....it feels like I am trapped with no way out, I panic. On a couple of occasions I have hit out at strangers.
It scares me.
Behind it is so much fear, at least that's my feeling.

But how would you feel if you came across a woman like me as you were travelling on public transport?

sorrel