I've never met a femme-presenting¹ person who didn't have a sexual harassment/assault story.

Most have one from within the past week.

My most recent harassment was yesterday (but I haven't really left the house yet today, so there's still time).

My first sexual assault was at ~13².

¹ InB4 some guy hops in to remind us all that men get SA'd too
² that I remember

@alice I don't. I agree with your general premise, that's it's a overwhelming and horrific problem that is egregiously common. And given how most say it's worse as a teen, I avoided it by femme presenting much later.

I only mention this because it's a weird feeling when people talk about this kind of thing as if it is a universal fundamental femme experience and where does that leave the few of us who are fortunate to have dodged that bullet?

It's better than the alternative but also othering.

@ellesaurus @alice You know those assholes in Washington currently trying to legislate our bodies, objectify us, turn our existence into a "fetish", and use us as political scape goats?

that's a form of sexual harassment/assault, just probably not the more direct kind you are envisioning.

Even if you escape the more direct and personal assault, you can't really exist as a femme presenting person in North America without incurring the abuse of patriarchy directed at your body.

@ra6bit @[email protected] @alice

This is too real. And I have explained some variant of it to MANY people.

Just think about how people INSIST we disclose our medical history to them to even be in the same social circles as them. They accuse us of assault if we don't tell them.

They're just sexualizing us. They're abusing us by forcing us to disclose private details about our bodies just to exist around any of them.