When I was 15 I was walking down the side of a lake with one of my friends and a few college guys started whistling at us. I am lucky that this was the first time I can remember being harassed. Later that same year I was sexually harassed by a guy I knew who put his fingers in a hole in my sweatpants and he told me he was “fingering my holes” He made other sexual references including something about me liking his butt in my face. I never knew what to do so I just laughed it off. It took me a while to report it to the proper authorities and I waited a week before I told my parents, who I am extremely close to. When I told some of my friends, they told me that I was not actually sexually harassed and that I was making a big deal about something that wasn’t a big deal. This really hurt me because I was really uncomfortable in that situation and they weren’t taking me seriously. Casual harassment is so normalized
