A Window Seat Nightmare

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If you’re a fan of the window seat, you’ve probably “been there.” You’re all settled and you’re on your way to your destination. You’re looking out the window here and there, or maybe you’re just enjoying having a wall to learn on, or the little bit of extra space under the seat in front of you.

And then, all of a sudden, the passenger next to you suddenly starts taking pictures out the window. Of course, it’s one thing if they only do it once or twice. Or if they take the shots from the confines of their middle (or aisle, if it’s just 2 seats in the row) seat, that’s usually OK too.

But a TikTokker named sterlingavannah had a much bigger problem on her hands – she had a window seat and the older man seated next to her appeared to continually lean over her to take pictures of the view.

Her caption for the video, which has well over 8.5 million views, was, “Do people not know personal space? And that you can choose a window seat? Only option was to stare out the window.”. Here’s the video:

@sterlingsavannah

Only option was to stare out the window😭

♬ Funny – Gold-Tiger

Many of the 20k+ responses offered suggestions of what sterlingsavannah could have done:

• Closed the shade
• Speak up for herself
• Stare him down
• Speak to a flight attendant

One or two said to humor the guy and let him take his photos. And a handful suggested that she was suffering from “freeze response” (from NIH: Part of Barlow’s (2002) description of an adaptive alarm model suggests that a freeze response may occur in some threatening situations. Specifically, freezing — or tonic immobility — may overwhelm other competing action tendencies. For example, when fleeing or aggressive responses are likely to be ineffective, a freeze response may take place.) but I personally question that. An older man leaning over to take photos may be annoying, but unless the woman in the window seat had unusual responses to someone else’s (admittedly) poor boundaries, I doubt it would be considered enough of a threat to warrant a fight-or-flight or freeze response.

As someone who appears to be significantly older than sterlingsavannah, I would have had no problem setting limits with this man (who, many people questioned, if he was her father or some other older man she was traveling with. She said he was not her father). But that’s me now. When I was her age, I might not have said anything in a similar situation, either.

What do you think? Would you have said something if you were in her shoes?

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary