I am absolutely disgusted. Revolted.
This morning, I was at Tim Horton's getting a coffee. I was waiting in line, like you do when waiting to be served. Music was playing in my ear, and I was alone. Out of nowhere, this middle-aged construction worker stood right beside me.
This in itself was weird and uncomfortable for me, as I was in line and lines don't usually have people standing right beside each other. He was very close, so I stepped away from him without thinking much of it.
That's when he put his arm around me. He pulled me closer to him and smiled. He took my earbud out of my ear and wrapped it around the back of my neck. Then, he says really close to my ear, "Hey babe. What are you getting?"
Despite my disgust, discomfort and fear, I did nothing. I calmly stood and ignored him. He kept trying to talk to me as if he was some guy at a bar trying to pick up women. When he wouldn't leave me alone, I told him to kindly stop touching me. He then called me an "uptight bitch" a "prude" and "no fun". I then went to the counter and ordered my coffee, and left.
This kind of thing isn't unusual, though. It has happened many times. If you were to ask girls my age and older, they could almost all probably recall something like this happen. Whether it's what happened to me, a cat call, being touched inappropriately, or even just saying something sexual to make them uncomfortable. It happens all the time.
I see a huge issue with this, naturally. It's typically older men acting like this to younger women. It's disgusting and entirely inappropriate. I don't think this type of behaviour isn't the worst part, though. The thing that bugs me most about this is that there's no way to control it. It's young girls without a lot of authority against grown men with jobs. I've even heard that there's "no real proof" of any of this happening.
Next time you see anyone being touched, talked to, catcalled or anything inappropriate like that, try to make an effort to make the person stop. It would be so much help to the victim. If someone were to tell the man to stop, which for some reason everyone was ignoring, I would've been super grateful. It would've relieved a lot of stress and anxiety, and just been a good thing to do in general.
So please, don't catcall anyone - man or woman. If you see this stuff, try to help. Let's try to make this revolting behaviour stop.
This morning, I was at Tim Horton's getting a coffee. I was waiting in line, like you do when waiting to be served. Music was playing in my ear, and I was alone. Out of nowhere, this middle-aged construction worker stood right beside me.
This in itself was weird and uncomfortable for me, as I was in line and lines don't usually have people standing right beside each other. He was very close, so I stepped away from him without thinking much of it.
That's when he put his arm around me. He pulled me closer to him and smiled. He took my earbud out of my ear and wrapped it around the back of my neck. Then, he says really close to my ear, "Hey babe. What are you getting?"
Despite my disgust, discomfort and fear, I did nothing. I calmly stood and ignored him. He kept trying to talk to me as if he was some guy at a bar trying to pick up women. When he wouldn't leave me alone, I told him to kindly stop touching me. He then called me an "uptight bitch" a "prude" and "no fun". I then went to the counter and ordered my coffee, and left.
This kind of thing isn't unusual, though. It has happened many times. If you were to ask girls my age and older, they could almost all probably recall something like this happen. Whether it's what happened to me, a cat call, being touched inappropriately, or even just saying something sexual to make them uncomfortable. It happens all the time.
I see a huge issue with this, naturally. It's typically older men acting like this to younger women. It's disgusting and entirely inappropriate. I don't think this type of behaviour isn't the worst part, though. The thing that bugs me most about this is that there's no way to control it. It's young girls without a lot of authority against grown men with jobs. I've even heard that there's "no real proof" of any of this happening.
Next time you see anyone being touched, talked to, catcalled or anything inappropriate like that, try to make an effort to make the person stop. It would be so much help to the victim. If someone were to tell the man to stop, which for some reason everyone was ignoring, I would've been super grateful. It would've relieved a lot of stress and anxiety, and just been a good thing to do in general.
So please, don't catcall anyone - man or woman. If you see this stuff, try to help. Let's try to make this revolting behaviour stop.