#TooManyMen on here saying: "This is the way of the world." It's not. It's the way of the patriarchy. Not all men built the hill. But all men benefit from their position on it: that sense that they deserve more space, more respect, more of what they want than women do.
My first assault by a man. I was 7. I was told not to make a fuss, to be polite, and not to be alone with him again. Throughout childhood and adolescence, I took that advice with a dozen men, some strangers, some colleagues. I was polite; obedient. It doesn't work.
Dozens of incidents down the line, I was attacked on Oxford Street at Christmas by two men who grabbed my bag and tried to drag me into an alleyway. I made a fuss. No-one intervened. So I knocked the fuckers down. Left one of them with a bloody nose. It worked just fine.
As I walked away, I heard them yelling after me: "We were only having a laugh!" Maybe they were. I'll never know. But don't let anyone tell you that "taking a joke" is the way to save yourself. Men who attack women get afraid when women fight back. I hope they still remember me.
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