#yesallwomen

[dbskyler]

I've been reading the #yesallwomen Twitter hashtag and it's been simultaneously empowering and depressing.

One of the depressing things is that I would like to join in, but I don't feel comfortable doing so. Well, I also don't have a Twitter account, but I've spent a day now thinking about posting something to Facebook, and I just can't bring myself to do it. I don't want to face the responses I am likely to get. Which, ironically, underscores just how important this hashtag discussion is.

Anyway, if I were more courageous, here's what I would post there:

Because I have been sexually groped, without my consent, in public, by men who thought it was a funny joke. Multiple times. #yesallwomen

What responses do I not want to read? "Maybe they did mean it as a joke. Don't take it so seriously." "What do you mean by 'sexually groped'? Are you sure your boundaries aren't unreasonable?" "If it happened to you multiple times, you must've done something to provoke it."

And the really sad thing is, I am certain that almost every woman reading this has had the same thing happen to her, at one point or other in her life. Which is what men just don't understand. THIS IS NOT AN ABERRATION. THIS KIND OF THING HAPPENS TO ALL WOMEN. ALL THE TIME.

Comments

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Really glad to hear it's never happened to you. I just assumed it must be very common because of the casual ways it's happened to me, but I've never actually asked any other women about it before. Isn't it interesting how even we women don't talk about this stuff with each other?

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I guess I know it happens to a lot of women because I see it mentioned a lot online (mostly in Tumblr posts or Tweets).