how do you deal with the inevitable hecklings?

[Mister Atlas]

I keep a confident attitude about dressing in the style; it's usually surprising enough to put off any would-be hecklers.


Also, the walking cane with the heavy brass head doesn't hurt.  It's hell of intimidating.

[Phineas Lamar Alexander]

I tell myself that I am certain that their life didn't turn out the way they planned it either.... anf this usually send me into a fit of hysterical laughter that the offender can't understand and that scares them!!!!

[Atterton]

"Also, the walking cane with the heavy brass head doesn't hurt."

Wrong phrase to use there, I think. 

[Hyren von Henry]

I cry.

Loudly.

Then I follow them around, crying.

(asking "WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME?!)

In front of their freinds, In front of girls they like, In front of their boss, Infront of their dear ole' Gran.



(mwhahahahahaaa!)

[Difference Engineer]

"Also, the walking cane with the heavy brass head doesn't hurt."

Wrong phrase to use there, I think. 

I am inclined to agree.  It would certainly hurt if applied with sufficient force and necessity.

[Herkimer]

I am mainly a fan of the look as far as creations. I am not terribly into dressing the part.
However if I were, and I were to be heckled, I would respond as I would in any similar situation.

I'd try to defuse the situation either by ignoring them, or by whit.
If things look like they are going to turn violent, I'd most likely look for an easy exit.
Given my athletic prowess (or more accurately, the lack thereof. I'm surprisingly fast... for about 50 ft, but asthma and other medical issues tend to take over at that point) I'd try to warn them off.
If that failed, well there is always my preferred martial art called "click pow".

[tophatdan]

you heckle back, if a guy says to me "oh my god where did you get a hat like that" i say "oh my god where did you get a nose like that, that's a huge nose, what was your grandfather a horse?"

if a kid is laughing to his friends about the 'big guy in the suit' as i recently heard i look at whomever i am with and say something like "holy hell did you see that ugly kid over there"

it may not be the most kosher way to deal with people and it manages to get me in a fair bit of trouble but if you hear "hey can you pull a rabbit out of that hat" enough times, you inevitably develop the "bird trick"

i will  never understand how it is that a guy can put on cowboy boots, a giant cowboy hat, skin tight jeans, a beltbuckle the size of a dinner plate and a paisley shirt and no one says a word but when its a top coat and top hat with a watch bob hanging from a vest pocket your all of a suddon the strangest fellow about...


heckling, i dint get  much of it anymore but when i do i shut it down immediately, then i am 6'3 300 lbs with a size 14 boot and an unapproachable presence that i work hard to keep...

[darkshines]

I have a similar approach but I deliver me retort in a far more calm, cruel and above all, selective way. I don't want steampunks to look like rude idiots, we should not lower ourselves to the level of the crass guttersnipes. If someone really was causing me trouble and evasive action wasn't working, I would walk up and hiss my insult in their ear.

[Flynn MacCallister]

I deal with them by... never hearing them in the first place.

It might help that I'm young and female.

[tophatdan]

it may indeed, lol

[Hyren von Henry]

Actually, the response of a gentleman would be to have him beaten with your hunting crop 

Sooooo..... I think i'll instruct my valet to carry it around in future.

[leeps]

i will  never understand how it is that a guy can put on cowboy boots, a giant cowboy hat, skin tight jeans, a beltbuckle the size of a dinner plate and a paisley shirt and no one says a word but when its a top coat and top hat with a watch bob hanging from a vest pocket your all of a suddon the strangest fellow about...

Exactly! And I don't get how a woman (generally of my own age range) wearing shapeless and unflattering sweat-pants, a shapeless t-shirt, flip-flops, and hideous plastic jewelry thinks she is in a position to roll her eyes at my dresses and tattoos. But they do. And I just laugh.

[Tanuki]

i will  never understand how it is that a guy can put on cowboy boots, a giant cowboy hat, skin tight jeans, a beltbuckle the size of a dinner plate and a paisley shirt and no one says a word but when its a top coat and top hat with a watch bob hanging from a vest pocket your all of a suddon the strangest fellow about...

Exactly! And I don't get how a woman (generally of my own age range) wearing shapeless and unflattering sweat-pants, a shapeless t-shirt, flip-flops, and hideous plastic jewelry thinks she is in a position to roll her eyes at my dresses and tattoos. But they do. And I just laugh.

I get this from my mother pretty much every time she looks at me.

[steamtastic]

i will  never understand how it is that a guy can put on cowboy boots, a giant cowboy hat, skin tight jeans, a beltbuckle the size of a dinner plate and a paisley shirt and no one says a word but when its a top coat and top hat with a watch bob hanging from a vest pocket your all of a suddon the strangest fellow about...

Exactly! And I don't get how a woman (generally of my own age range) wearing shapeless and unflattering sweat-pants, a shapeless t-shirt, flip-flops, and hideous plastic jewelry thinks she is in a position to roll her eyes at my dresses and tattoos. But they do. And I just laugh.

I get this from my mother pretty much every time she looks at me.

my perants don't seem to approve of steampunk. they thinks it's weird and they even took the laptop off me and went through my profile on BG! they said i shouldn't talk to weirdos! they think the style is weird the cloths are weird and everything about it is weird. and so do my friends. hmmm... odd how the next day my dad said he'd look for a pair of family airloom wielding goggles we apparently have.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

i had this great granddad and apparently was a major scientist in metal research. he had a pair of expensive welding goggles which where silver & gold rimmed which he passed on to my Dad. however we haven't seen them for 20 years...

[Honeybell]

Bless you heart Steamtastic, they're right... we ARE weirdos... (I wouldn't have it any other way     ).  On another note... you find those goggles!!!  I would love to see a pic!

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

I cry.

Loudly.

Then I follow them around, crying.

(asking "WHY DON'T YOU LIKE ME?!)

In front of their freinds, In front of girls they like, In front of their boss, Infront of their dear ole' Gran.



(mwhahahahahaaa!)

Cruel.

I like it 

[JosephR]

And I don't get how a woman (generally of my own age range) wearing shapeless and unflattering sweat-pants, a shapeless t-shirt, flip-flops, and hideous plastic jewelry thinks she is in a position to roll her eyes at my dresses and tattoos. But they do. And I just laugh.

As well you might!   

[Chris Siddall]

Well I put myself to the test with a gentle stroll from Holborn back to Finsbury Park through streets thronged with fans of Seven Dials/Woolwich Arsenal Association Football Club on Saturday. And it must be said there is something about the combination of pith helmet and khaki Utilikilt in public that demands every quotable line from Zulu and It Ain't Half Hot Mum to be shouted at the wearer, mostly from across the street. I find a tip of the hat to the wittiest (or the bon mot least often repeated, generally) gives the general public a fillip and avoids unpleasantness. I think a 4 -1 win helped as well.

Weirdest comment was from an old Rasta to whom I must have triggered some ancestral memory of the campaign against Magdala "Is da people whoat invaded Africa." or it might just have been more Zulu. That by the by was the most aggressive comment of the journey and even so it was exclaimed more with an air of disbelief than anger. The majority of positive comments came from women who thought the old manskirt was brilliant and awesome, it certainly put a spring in my step for the last half mile.

Whilst I would not decry those who wish to take more assertive measures to ease their passage out and about, civility and good humour win far easier than stompy kicky smashy.

[Wordsmith]

If it is merely heckles we are talking about, I simply ignore them. If their minds are so small, it is not worth my time to acknowledge them.

If it is something rather more physical, well, I entrust my faith in my good two legs to remove me from such a situation, and ensure that I do not find myself in a situation too far out of reach of the authorities!

You are welcome to call me a sissy, or a pansy if you will, but rest assured that I will not be bending my ear to hear you say it!

[tophatdan]

well you have got it there i suppose, a tip of the hat usually breaks a stare and a quick hello or howdy usually stops a snide or snarky comment before it starts, its after someone has already decided to be rude, obnoxious and uncouth, started heckling or making unbecoming comments and is in need of a quick ruffling of the proverbial feathers, that's more the spirit here i think, how do you deal with the hecklings, not how easy are they to avoid...

and yes, most comments you do hear are positive ones, most often they are a simple inquiry, i get a lot of "are you an entertainer" and "i didn't know this was a formal event" looking for me to snap back, those are comments and I'm usually gracious, humble and at tim es witty, but when someone approaches you for the purpose of trying to downtalk you like some highschool bully, that's when you have to cut them off and end the conversation quickly, because chances are, that person isn't going to 'get it' they aren't going to like you, and your not likely to like them....

and in that situation i would just as soon put them down than let theem do it to me...

remember, if they are nice to you and mean to the waiter, they are not a nice person.... this rule never fails.

[Utini420]

i will  never understand how it is that a guy can put on cowboy boots, a giant cowboy hat, skin tight jeans, a beltbuckle the size of a dinner plate and a paisley shirt and no one says a word but when its a top coat and top hat with a watch bob hanging from a vest pocket your all of a suddon the strangest fellow about...

Exactly! And I don't get how a woman (generally of my own age range) wearing shapeless and unflattering sweat-pants, a shapeless t-shirt, flip-flops, and hideous plastic jewelry thinks she is in a position to roll her eyes at my dresses and tattoos. But they do. And I just laugh.

I once made a woman cry doing that (there may also have been a weight comment tossed in).  She deserved it.  She certainly started it.

In any event, I've long interpreted the vast majority of heckling as jealousy.  Perhaps I get this impression because most of the hecklers are so bloody ugly...  Drawing attention to this fact is my preferred response.  Might not be the fastest or subtlest, but its the most fun.  And the stupid ugly masses ought to be good for something.

[Cpt. Tobias Warde]

I haven't been heckled in years  I do live in an incredibly laid-back city where anything goes, more or less. No comments about my suits, or shirts, nor about my goggles (now I have them and keep wearing them out as sunglasses ), or even my big long coats. Hmmm.

[Utini420]

I went strolling about in a cowboy hat with goggles (around the hat) the other day.
That really confused 'em.  Seriously, a lot of the looks I got seemed not sure if they should be heckling me, or if in fact I was already heckling them.  Brilliant!

[Wordsmith]

Smashing! That is clever!

[aoichan]

Me, any time I've had a heckler (which due to how little Vic/Steampunk clothing I own at the moment, isn't much, but anyhoo) I just absolutely ham and spam the unmitigated, all-out, damned excrement out of the act, and just say the most eccentric stuff I could think of. (For any Blackadder fans, General Melchett's lines are a really good place to start. Especially his advice about ignoring a pooh-pooh.)