‘Fish in a fishbowl’: Woman calls out ‘creepy’ men habit

A 33-year-old business owner has called out the countless people who linger and stare at her from outside her Melbourne shop.

A Melbourne business owner has called out a man for leering at her through the window while she was trying to finish off some work at the back of her shop.

Alisha Williams, 33, who owns the sexual wellness business Rosewell, says it’s not an uncommon occurrence.

“People come and stare at my desk every day and night,” she tells news.com.au. “The store is clearly closed and being packed up.

“Sometimes we make eye contact, and they just stand there staring. It’s like, ‘Can I help you…?’ We’re clearly shut.”

Ms Williams, 33, says men stare at her through her shop windows. Picture: Supplied

She mentioned that as a female-founded business selling sexual wellness products on a main road down the street from a pub, she occasionally questions herself.

“Sometimes I’ll be working in the shop at 2 or 3am – and I think, am I somehow encouraging people to stop?” she says.

“But the thing about having a storefront at the front of where you do work is that you can’t really do anything during the day that isn’t retail-related – it’s really hard.”

Ms Williams pointing to the area at the back of her shop where she often works. Picture: Supplied

She says people will stare at her late at night, especially people coming home from the pub. Picture: Supplied

She said these incidents, which happen all the time, are “scary,” and some people even try to come inside and jiggle the door because they think it’s “funny”.

For those who tell her to put up curtains, she notes that she’s closing her store in that location in three weeks, so it wouldn’t be worth it.

“Also, I’ve done so much work already in this space.”

But without curtains, she says she feels like “a fish in a fishbowl” with people glaring inside.

She is leaving the location in a few weeks so isn’t going to install curtains. Picture: Supplied

It comes after a young woman felt equally uncomfortable when a man watched her from outside a dark window while she was doing a private pilates class.

Bella Belnap, from California, was attending her first class at her local pilates studio, working on some more advanced movements during her one-on-one session.

Another woman in the US experienced something similar recently during a pilates class Picture: TikTok/@bellabelnap

Ms Belnap said that as soon as she noticed the man move closer to the window and “linger,” she felt on edge.

Things took a turn when she was leaving the studio and spotted the same man.

Thankfully, she ran to her car and drove away, but the experience has left her shaken.

“People might dismiss it, and I tried to as well — but it’s haunting. That feeling of being prey. I stopped going to pilates because I was afraid of seeing him again,” she said.

Originally published as ‘Fish in a fishbowl’: Woman calls out ‘creepy’ men habit