*Disclaimer: I have been very lucky in that I have never been sexually assaulted or taken advantage of. The story that you'll read in this post, happened to my friend. I, however, was there and decided that it needed to be shared.* First of all, Consent. It's something you should take seriously. As you can probably guess, according to the Merriam-Webser dictionary, consent is giving assent or approval. But adding on to that, consent should be given by someone who is sober/ aware of their surroundings. Like any other kool kidz, my friend and I were taking the subway home from school. We were surrounded by friends and scrolling through Instagram. At one stop, a group of older teenage boys came on and we immediately sensed trouble. It only took a few minutes for one of them to come over and start harassing one of my friends. The train was loud and he was repetitive, so I can't give an exact dialogue/ run-down of what happened. Anyway, one of the teenagers came up to my friend to inform that his friend was interested in her. He then asked her if she felt the same way. She said "No" and it continued on as excuses were made. He asked "Why," "Is it because he's a stranger," to "I don't see a boyfriend around." We soon noticed that he had no intent on stopping, so my friend asked him to stop and he didn't. Gradually, she became less polite. Instead, she grew louder and firmer, until he put his hands up and said, "Alright." Obviously, many things about this disgusted me. But here are the few that stood out to me: 1. ADULTS!!! WHERE ARE YOU??? There were about a handful of adults on the train and they were all watching this happen to a young girl!! and!! didn't do anything!! They had the power to do something and help, but they didn't. 2. AGE??? My friend does look slightly older for her age, but I was sitting right next to her and I look a little young for my age. Anyway, she was under 16 and I have a feeling that the boys were over 16. Any assault disgusts me, but it grosses me out, even more, when the age difference is so large. 3. EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES The fact that "I'm not interested" wasn't enough to get the message across deeply upset. Women and men constantly have to lie and make excuses, even after saying no. She had to say she had a boyfriend, she was too young, her parents would never let her date, she didn't know him, and it almost got to the point where she was going to pull the "Lesbian Card." HELP STOP SEXUAL ASSAULT
BE SAFE!
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