Do you remember not being able to say why were you crying, could not tell what happened in an underground passage, in a bus, in a, when unwittingly, you sat in a front seat, in a school bathroom, in an elevator (the list is infinite)?
Do you remember being ashamed, when you were a child and an older man sitting next to you unzipped his pants? Do you remember, the shame you felt for showing your knees, sitting in a spot where men could have thought you wanted him to sit next to you? Then you felt shame that you did not stand up when he sat, then you did not stand up before he unzipped his pants, then you did not stand up when he unzipped his pants? Do you remember feeling ashamed that you exist at all?
Do you remember how easily manipulated you were when you were a little girl? When older men and boys were texting you, Do you remember how blinding it was and you could not understand if you even had the right to reject this “honor”?
Have you heard how grown-ups say that children should get informed t h e m s e l v e s about what is sex, when are they harassed, where people are not allowed to touch them without consent, what does it mean when on a bus, men sitting next to them watch them and unzip their pants? Have you heard how they say, that "Modern children can teach us instead?"
They said the same about you and me. They felt the same shame as children and did not want to be further ashamed talking about it. As a result, they left us alone with our shame, that we feel only because we exist in the body of a woman.
We act the same. We avoid talking about it and as a result, she who must not be ashamed feels shame. And who should be ashamed, fearless, and uninhibited still takes advantage of little girls’ naivety and jerks off next to a little girl in a bus.
