A woman has revealed the moment men ‘questioned’ her about her relationship even after she told them she had a boyfriend.
Mary Johnson, 27, was in a shopping center in Milton Keynes waiting for a friend when a man she had never met approached her and told her she was “beautiful”.
The student said she felt “uncomfortable” because she was alone and tried to reject him using the excuse that she “had a man” in an effort to be polite.
In one video, secretly filmed on his phone, the persistent stranger asks questions including “how long have you been together?” to try to catch her.
Although the nursing student is single, she admits that she used the excuse as a tactic to politely reject him because she feared he might “turn nasty” if she bluntly “turned him off.”
Mary Johnson (pictured) was minding her own business in a Milton Keynes shopping center when she was approached and hoped to gently disappoint her caller by telling her she had a boyfriend.
However, the ‘shameless man proceeded to interrogate the 27-year-old bachelor with questions such as: ‘How long have you been together?’
The student has encouraged other women to covertly record their own similar interactions after her encounter left her “fed up”.
The encounter left her “fed up” because she wanted to be “left alone” and she now hopes to encourage men to be more aware of women’s limits, even if they find someone “attractive.”
Mary posted the video online with the caption: ‘So now there are guys here investigating whether you really have a boyfriend or not… Some men have no shame.
‘They just can’t take no for an answer [crying emoji] whether you’re being polite or rude about it. We can never win.’
Mary, from Luton, Bedfordshire, said: “I saw him walk past and look at me when I was on the phone.
‘I saw him enter the shops behind me, where I was sitting. The next thing I knew, he was right in front of me.
‘He said: “You’re beautiful, do you have a man?”
‘I felt uncomfortable. I don’t like it very much, especially if I’m alone in the middle of a mall, so I was like, “yeah, I like it.”
‘I felt like it was a nice way to turn him down. I thought I’d try to be nice.
“That’s when he started asking me saying, ‘Well, how long have you been together?’ and this and that.
‘He didn’t believe I had a boyfriend.
‘I said, “You’re really interested in my relationship, aren’t you?” and he said, “girls lie about having a man nowadays.”
“I was getting fed up because I was trying to be nice and polite. But then I started getting anxious, I just wanted to leave. He was so reluctant [to accept it] and persistent.
‘Clearly there is a reason. Why do you have to question? Leave us alone.
‘I have come across this many times and it always scares me because there was one time in the past where I closed it and the person became very unpleasant.
“As a girl, it’s pretty scary because you just don’t know how they’re going to react.”
Mary said she has been in similar situations many times in the past and still struggles with how to approach them, as “one time in the past I shut it down and the person became really unpleasant.”
Commenters, as well as Mary’s real-life friends, expressed their condolences after she shared the clip.
Mary suspects that the “interrogation” she faced was perhaps due to other women using similar excuses in the past.
Anxious, she was relieved when her friend came to meet her, but says she has faced similar situations in the past, including claiming a man asked her to stop on the highway to get her number.
Mary said: ‘It can be really dangerous. I’m still trying to figure out how to approach that type of situation. You never know how people might react, it completely depends on the person.
“There was a time when I was driving to work and this guy was showing [his lights at] me, so I thought there was something wrong with my car.
“He was blinking and pointing with his hand like ‘Go to the shoulder.’
“I really thought there was something wrong with my car because I’m not good with cars at all.
“I went to the shoulder and he said, ‘Can I have your number?’
“I had to give him my social media because I was afraid that if I rejected him and got back in the car, he would try to intimidate me while I was driving and I might crash.
‘It was terrifying. As soon as I got to my workplace, I blocked him and changed my username.’
Mary hopes that by sharing her videos online it will encourage other women to secretly record a conversation if they feel insecure and will also help educate men about accepting women’s boundaries.
Lastly, he implored men to “just know the boundaries” regardless of whether they find someone attractive.
Mary said: ‘Sometimes you just want to go shopping on your own with headphones on and without being approached.
“It’s totally blatant and all women experience it,” she said. “Even talking to my male friends they were like, ‘I didn’t realize it was that far.’
‘My advice to other women would be to shoot videos astutely like I did if you find yourself in a similar situation.
‘I’ve seen videos of boys being hit and shown faces, but that can make them aggressive.
“Make it more of a protection thing, just so that if it turns left, you have proof.” You could quickly show her face at the end of the video.
‘Also don’t criticize yourself for how you react to the situation, just do what makes you feel safe and secure.
“For guys, even if you find someone attractive, just know the limits.”