From personal experience: do NOT allow men to rob your space (in real life or online)

submitted by vitunrotta from self.GenderCritical

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[–]SameOldBS 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Good for you! I'm really small - just over five feet - and I learned pretty early in life that I needed to counter that with confidence and aggression if confronted. I always shouted back at call callers when I was younger, and gave as much as I got. I swear it kept me safe in a lot of situations. Animals will always pick on the weakest members of the pack. It's instinct.

[–]vitunrotta[S] 11 insightful - 3 fun11 insightful - 2 fun12 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

Good for you, too. :) I am pretty much the same height also, so here's a "high" (distanced) five for shorties! And yes... They go for the one that looks the weakest to them. Always. I wanted to add a parable of this in my text - but then I thought: I'm not gonna compare animals to these simpletons! The top of the food chain indeed, if we talked about the line-up to McDonald's...

But like you said, just that fact alone made you become fiercer. I also shout back nowadays if some bonehead thinks it's alright to tell me how I look. And I have some ~vocabulary~, baby. Once I walked by two dudes and while they didn't really shout at me I heard what they were saying. Pretty nasty stuff. I walked backed and burped on their faces. (I know how to fake burp the entire alphabet, thank you big brothers!) That shut them up at least. Small victories...!

[–]YoutiaoLover 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes! I believe attitude matters more than physical size. I told my friends that good posture, confidence and fierceness are effective to repel perverts and harassment. But they always said, "Easy for you to say, you're tall!"

Thank you for sharing, I'll try bringing your post up soon! Hopefully this can help them see that they can do it too :)

[–]vitunrotta[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Great! And yes - at least from my extensive personal experience I can tell that attitude counts for 99%. I guess physical size might make some men more apprehensive but it absolutely does not deter them. In fact, I'd wager that they can use size as a reason to harass also: if you don't "look like a real woman" or whatever BS. Height or weight (or combination of both) can be easily used against a woman too, there are plenty of examples of this if you just check the comments on an Instagram account of any tall/big woman.

As mentioned it certainly was not an easy exercise but damn, was it worth it. And like another user stated: fake it 'til you make it. Enough practice and eventually you're likely reach the moment where you really don't give a fuck anymore. :)