Thread by @medusaisdone

1 A thread about catcalling & the male gaze.
My v sweet, very naive oldest daughter is 13. She's beautiful and people have started to notice. At first it was an ego boost. But v suddenly over the past month, the attention has become less benign.

2. Yesterday we (family) went for dinner near the beach. Her best friend called her and she stepped outside for a minute.
A few minutes later she came back in crying. A group of guys walked past her, then backed up. One of them approached her & said "hey doll, 5 bucks for a bj"

3 She ran inside to us, hyperventilating, because she's a kid who was asked to give a bj for money.
It was like veil fell from her eyes. Since yesterday she's been hypervigilant, anxious. She's suddenly started noticing how men look at me.

4. I'm old and fat and should be invisible. But I am more than the sum of my parts and men stare. Sometimes they try to do more until they see the look in my eyes (unless I'm v occasionally interested).
Today my daughter asked me how I stand it.

5. I told her that I have no choice but to stand it. Unless they touch me and then I will break and hurt and scratch and impale.
But she is so young and sweet and I don't want her to have to get vicious and violent like me.

6. I want to keep her sweet and kind and I'll do the tearing and ripping. I don't want her to be a misandrist. I don't want her to know how to break a man's bones. How to tear a knee out of place. How hard you need to bite down to reach bone. I'm crying as I write this.

7. So men, I beg you, stop treating girls and women as prey, as spoils, as holes for your cocks.
Tell that to your sons.
So I don't have to raise my girls to be scratching, kicking banshees and medusas.
So I can keep them sweet and kind.
I'm begging you.

8. #MothersPlea