TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL HARASSMENT
I’m writing this because in the last week I have experienced a dramatic increase in harassment in the street while presenting as feminine (seriously, fuck the World Cup for filling the streets with drunk dicks). I have been called a tranny, freak, and it.
Today it got worse, a guy yelled at me to “gimme a feel of those tits” and tried to grab my boob. Following this I feel disgusted and scared, but mostly I feel angry. I’m generally a pretty laid back , so anger is not an emotion I’m particularly practiced at processing.
I’m angry at the entitlement.
I’m angry at the way he made me feel.
But most of all I’m angry that this is so normal.
Angry that I am lucky, not unlucky, to experience this for the first time at 22.
I’m fully aware that most women have experienced worse, and are desensitized to this sort of low level harassment. I have a lot of privilege as someone who has presented as male most of their life and, at my most feminine, I’m still built like a partially shaved gorilla (albeit quite an effeminate one). But this shit still happens to me.
Fuck the men (and yes, it is men) who make me feel unsafe in the street.
Fuck the systems which diminish, silence, and gaslight people who experience this.
Fuck a society where the price for looking feminine in public is risking sexual harassment and assault.
Fuck normalisation, anger and outrage is an appropriate response.