Caitlin

I was out with four guy friends. There was an older man at the bar who would not stop staring at me. At first I tried to ignore it, but it got to the point where he was fully turned around in his seat to get a clear, unflinching look at me. I looked directly at him and asked if I could help him. He turned his back to me. Sure enough, a couple minutes later, he was fully turned around again. This time I flipped him off. He did nothing but continue to stare in a scary, hungry way. It was at this point that one of my guy friends told me to stop because he didn’t want to have to deal with any trouble. Another told me I should be happy that I’m someone guys want to stare at.
Thank you for invalidating my feelings, making it okay for a man to treat me like an object, and promoting rape culture. You guys are doing great things.