Thread by @Eedwardsellis

I hear a lot of talk about how women should "just say no" or fight back when men inappropriately touch /invade their space. I've learned from experience that that doesn't always work. True story: back in the mid-2000's I got a job in the bldgs and grounds dept of a CUNY school...

It was mostly men in the dept but I got along with most of them. But one creeped. Me. The. Fuck. Out. The fact that he always seemed to have excuses to touch me when we were talking. One day I pulled my hand away and asked him to stop. He launched into a tirade about...

...how the school's sexual harassment policy was designed to "get n------s fired" because "sensitive-ass females didn't know how to act" around men who were "just being friendly."
#HeDidntListen

True story: after I dropped out of college (due to lack of funds), I got a job as a busser/dishwasher in a nightclub. One night, I saw a man grope a woman. She turned around and swung her (large) purse and hit him square in the face. He punched her to ground.
#HeDidntListen

Another true story: At the same club, another guy tried touchy-feely behavior with a group of women having a bachelorette party. When the women tried to blow him off, he smashed a champagne flute into one of the women's faces! I quit right after that. Too scared.
#hedidntlisten

True story: Not too long after I moved to NYC, I took the subway to work. Train was very crowded. A guy pressed his extremely noticeable erection into my thigh. I bent my arm so that my elbow created a barrier bw us but I couldn't move...

The guy kept trying to get close anyway. The train pulled into the station & emptied out. I immediately ran to the front of the car. The guy followed me! I ran off the train just as the doors shut. The doors shut in the guy's face. He was going to follow me out.
#HeDidntListen

True story: went to B&N to browse books. This guy I didnt know walked up to me, placed his hand in the small of my back & demanded my phone #. Never even said hello. I smacked his hand away and told him to get away from me. He called me a "light-skindided bitch."
#HeDidntListen

True story: I used to live on the 8th floor of an apartment building. Once, a tenant I didn't know got in the elevator with me. Thought nothing of it until he STOOD RIGHT NEXT TO ME. I moved over. So did he. And he smirked....

I got mad so I yelled, "What the fuck! We're in an elevator!" He didn't say anything but he didn't look contrite, either. I freaked out. I had already pressed my floor so he knew what floor I lived on...

I got the impression that he eould keep right on crowding me. And that elevator was slow as shit. So I pressed the button for the 5th floor. When it finally stopped, I ran out and hid out in the stairwell until I was sure the elevator doors had stopped. #HeDidntListen

I'm 42. I'm sure these aren't the only times I've been inappropriately touched/crowded or seen it happen to others but I can't remember every incident. It happened too many times. So please think twice before you say women should "just say no." Because sometimes
#HeDidntListen