This is the moment that strikes me: when the male relative pulled his dick out, she froze.
It’s completely understandable. That’s because we women have been given no tools to deal with such things – despite the fact that they are commonplace. Really freaking commonplace. For every newsmaking Louis C.K. dick-exposure, there are probably 500 that don’t make the news.
Most of the time, we either freeze, or hurry away.
We don’t call police, because, really, what’s the point?
I’ve been clearly instructed that acting horrified is just what they want, it turns them on, so that’s no good either.
It’s intimated that these guys are dangerous and unstable, so it’s best not to antagonize them. So all we do is freeze, most of the time.
Remember the moment where we summoned the collective courage to teach children that no one should touch their bathing suit area, and if it happened, “Yell and tell”?
Women I know who’ve been through this most often say, “I didn’t know what to do.” Unfortunately, sadly, sickly, we’re at the moment where women and girls need to be explicitly taught the best practices strategy for dealing with a guy pulling his dick out.
I don’t have the answer, but I’m hoping that we can come up with one, and learn it and share it, “yell and tell” it.
And don’t @ me with talk of “victim blaming” simply because I want to feel empowered and empower others with knowledge, because I want to learn dick-wagger self-defense skills. If it happens to me, I want to know what to do besides stand there wondering WTF I’m supposed to do. Because it feels like my lack of knowledge gives the offender a lot of his power.
