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[yardwork]

62. The reason I ask is that that question caused a flamewar on DU some months ago.

Some DUers who identify as male were very insulted and angry at the suggestion that women should ever have to be wary of strangers. I recall one thread about a woman rebuffing the unwanted sexual attention of a stranger, a male she encountered in public, and a number of DUers were very angry about it. They stated that it was bigoted for women to rebuff unwanted attention of males in public. We are supposed to smile and not be rude. It still makes me angry to remember this.

I recall an incident that occurred when I was about sixteen. I was walking to the store from my home, wearing jeans and a tunic-style top. Nothing I was wearing was revealing. (It's sad that I feel obligated to mention this but I do, given the tendency of people to assume that a woman who receives unwanted attention must have been dressed provocatively.) I was small for my age, a little skinny sixteen year old kid in jeans and a long loose top. As I walked down the public street I passed an apartment where a number of men were sitting on a deck. They started hooting and hollering and calling out to me. I ignored them. I did not say anything or look at them. I was scared and I kept on walking. Their hoots and hollers turned to jeers and then insults. They started yelling at me that I was a stuck up bitch, a .... (sorry, don't want to type what they called me). The tone of their words still upsets me. This happened almost 40 years ago and it still bothers me.

It's a very minor story comparatively speaking, but I still remember how upsetting it was to be treated that way by a group of grown men when I was sixteen. The same age as the female victim of the Rape Crew at Steubenville High.

And no, I never told my parents. I never told anybody until today.