Every Day Sexual Harassment
When I was pre-16, I felt like the only power we girls had against boys was the facial slap. We could or should slap them, if they spoke or acted “too fresh.” I slapped a few, Brian, that boy on the bus, Robert, and James. In retrospect, I wish it wasn’t like that. I wish we weren’t being set up for such rigid roles and behavior. If I could’ve said, “The shit you’re saying, calling me bad name, and teasing me, feels really bad. stop or I’ll do it back to you.” Because why just the slap? It’s so scripted. Gentlemen can be slapped by ladies. So I slapped you, friend, after you said those things to me that neither one of us understood yet. You heard adults saying all that stuff. You tried it on me. I never heard that stuff before. So I slapped tf outta you. The other thing we’re advised to do is kick a boy in the balls, if it comes to that. That’s sound advice.
Well, words are always better, if possible.
Violence doesn’t do what you want it to do. It does what it wants to do.
It marks the severing of communication flow.
If only they’d listen to words, though.
Back then, they might’ve. but maybe not.